New Friends, New Enemies
by Wolfe and Swordsman
Summary: The Rovers are in for more than they asked for this time. With the rescue of Riot and his friends, the Rovers and their newest member Kurt find themselves in the middle of a war that is on the edge of erupting. Can they stop the plans of Cyrus in time?
1. Enter, Cyrus

THE FOLLOWING STORY IS A COOPERATIVE EFFORT ON THE ACCOUNTS OF **YOUNG SWORDSMAN** AND **S.C. WOLFE**, AND IS A COMBINATION OF THEIR TWO STORIES (**JOINING THE ROVERS** AND **ON THE RUN**) NEITHER OF THEM CLAIM RIGHTS TO THE ROAD ROVERS OR ANY OF THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS OR IDEAS. WE REQUEST THAT YOU ENJOY OUR STORY, AND REVIEW IF YOU FEEL SO MOTIVATED TO DO SO.

THANK YOU,

YOUNG SWORDSMAN AND S.C. WOLFE

**PART I**

"We had a settlement, Mr. Cyrus," the man exclaimed as he slammed his mechanical arm onto the table with such force that it caused a dent in the shape of his fist.

"We did, and I have yet to see your part fully acted out, Parvo," the Kennel Master replied. He eyed Parvo's choice of dress: Camo pants and a tight muscle shirt. This was no formal occasion, but the Kennel Master would have appreciated a little effort on Parvo's part.

"I'll not make another movement until I begin seeing results from your experiments!" Parvo put another fist mark in the table. The Kennel Master, better known as Cyrus on the black market, passively looked at his ruined table. He was briefly aware of his bodyguard looming over him. The transdogmafied greyhound stood taller than most men, and was the latest model from the KOOY branch of production. Tragic, really, that that branch had suffered the loss of twelve members just recently. Only a few had been brought back, but Cyrus had plans for retrieving the surviving three. One of them in particular needed to be recovered. This was only a minor setback, and until then he had to deal with this buffoon, Parvo.

"Parvo, I'd prefer that we don't get emotional about this exchange. As I recall, you claimed not to need my services. 'Merely a convenience', as you put it," Cyrus paused to take a sip out of his coffee mug, "now, you want my product badly, which I'm assuming is because yours didn't come out so well. When I told you about Project Avenger, it was because I intended on dedicating my resources to your cause. I didn't expect you to try and duplicate my work. Rest assured that these Cano-mutants of your HTC project are not even close to as agile and deadly as my KOOY class product, such as I have here." Cyrus indicated the greyhound, which was standing at attention. "And as to the issue of you _mimicking_ my creations! Well, sir, I find myself disturbed. Our agreement was that I'd be providing you with ample supplies and troops loyal to the entirety of your cause, as I recall."

"Yeah, so what? I figured I could give it an honest shot."

"And risked exposing not only your organization, but mine as well, and this I cannot allow. You are to stand your forces down until this is all ready, or we'll both suffer for your eager arrogance."

"Hey, now listen up! I'm in charge here, so I'm the boss! Unless you want me to cut off my funding completely, then you listen to me…!"

"Parvo," the Kennel Master interrupted as he shook his head slowly and straightened his black sport coat. "Parvo, Parvo, Parvo. You may well fund the majority of these productions going on around here, but I think that you fail to realize that I have the power of arms. Throw your dollar at me if you wish, but a name on my hit list is a body in the ground. Why, this guy here is capable of single handedly taking out an entire military-grade outpost."

"Bah! That skinny _mutt_ couldn't take on a _single_ one of my Cano-mutants! This is my money, and they may be your creations, but they're my property. Besides that, the only reason I'd ever want one of those creations of yours is fer cannon fodder, got it?!" Parvo began ranting and raving about his genius and mastermind projects, and Cyrus generally ignored every word of it, finding the black specs in his coffee more amusing than this man.

"I'll tell you what," Cyrus said, cutting Parvo off in mid-sentence, "let's put this petty quarrel behind us with a duel. Send in any five of your creations, and I'll put in this greyhound here and we'll see whose creations are the better. If your monsters win, I'll surrender a full legion of my forces to you, free of charge. If _my_ greyhound wins, however, your argument is lost and we continue on with business as agreed upon by the contract we both signed. Either way, you win, really. So for me personally, there's nothing to be gained but bragging rights and a smirk."

Parvo wouldn't let down this challenge, and the Kennel Master knew it. The guy wasn't an idiot, just an overconfident moron. He was a thinker, but not a planner. Parvo's assistant, Groomer, blew a whistle, and the sliding metal door hissed open. A small number of Parvo's Cano-mutants poured in, ready to defend their masters. Amusing, Parvo had suspected treachery on Cyrus's part.

"Any five of your choosing, Parvo"

"Five? Ha! I'll only need two! That's one to kill yer hound, and one to clean up afterwards!"

"My hound will do both," Cyrus muttered, "Follow me to the arena. It is a training ground where my subjects undergo combat training. The ground moves to what ever sort of scene you want it to be, and only takes a few minuets to do so. What'll it be? Forest, desert, grassland? Your choice."

It took about five minuets to get to the arena. The thing was as big as four football fields, and the padded walls showed burns and cuts all the way around. A large, mobile platform was rested at the corner where the door was, for spectators and trainers. Everyone got into the small hovering platform except for Cyrus's greyhound and two of Parvo's Cano-mutants. A golden retriever and a Dalmatian. Those two had been with Parvo on his every visit. Parvo would almost seem bare without his two little monsters.

"I think we'll set the stage in a forest, Mr. Cyrus. I know greyhounds, they're runners, so a forest will limit his speed."

"Forest it is then, Parvo." Cyrus waved his hand, and dialed a few buttons into a control pad in front of him. The entire room shook as the floor opened up to either side, reveling a chamber below. The chamber slid sideways as though the landscaped were on a giant conveyor belt until it came to a forest setting. The conveyor belt stopped, and the forest was pushed upward hydraulically. The whole process took about five minuets. When it was done, there was a forest with thick trees and rocks, even a small river.

"This go well with your idea, Parvo?"

"Perfectly," three smaller hover platforms than dropped down to the Cano-mutants and the greyhound. They were hoisted up, and dropped off at random sections of the landscape. A virtual reality kicked in, and it suddenly looked as though there was a sky and clouds, and mountains beyond the limits of the room. A small touch to make the place look more real.

"Not a half-bad place," Parvo noted with folded arms, "may just buy one of these off you as well."

The duel began. The greyhound, named Zig by his peers, so Cyrus was told, instantly took to his training. He had no weapon, and he didn't need one. Zig was a mock image of the Road Rover Blitz. His claws could extend and cut through almost anything, thought he didn't share in Blitz's ability to use his teeth. For some reason or another, Cyrus hadn't been able to replicate that ability. It was true that the greyhound dog was known for its speed, but Zig was far better known for his agility in hand-to-hand combat.

Zig carefully moved about the trees, checking his every step, watching every shadow. His razor claws extended to full length, almost a full foot. The other tiny issue with Zig was that he didn't have any claws on his thumbs. This wasn't actually all that bad, but the more the merrier. Zig's ears twitched as one of the Cano-mutants, the Dalmatian, started loudly sniffing the air. Zig crouched low to the ground, and listened. They were still a full football field away, but the artificial landscape was making it impossible to see more than a dozen yards. Zig knew where the Dalmatian was, but true to his training, he didn't act, suspecting a trap. Sure enough, the golden retriever was only a little to the side with a blaster drawn. The Kennel Master almost spoke up, but he was the one who had never specified "no weapons."

Zig moved suddenly, griping the bark of the tree next to him, and launched himself into the air. From there, he caught sight of both Cano-mutants, and used the second of his abilities. With a quick flip of both wrists, the claws from his hands shot forward, taking the golden retriever in the head, neck, chest and hand. It fell with a roar, and Zig landed silently. He side crawled into the underbrush of a cluster of aspen, and vanished from the sight of those in the small hover platform.

The second Cano-mutant was slightly panicked, but was either brave, or extremely stupid. It ripped the blaster from his comrade's cold hands, and paced into the thick trees. It shot at every shadow, and every falling leaf. Some of the battleground caught fire, but Cyrus didn't activate the sprinkler system. He was enjoying Parvo's defeat too much. Besides, he could always dig up another tree and stick it in the ground where the others had burnt.

"Very impressive work, Cyrus. I honestly underestimated your creation," Parvo admitted. "However, it is now clawless, and I'd venture to guess that they don't grow back instantly. How is the greyhound going to handle that?"

Cyrus looked at the small scene below. Smoke was gathering at the roof, and Zig was nowhere to be seen. The Kennel Master knew full well what was happening, and so he didn't fret.

The Cano-mutant looked at the burning scene around him, and laughed. It was assuming Zig was burnt out? No wonder Parvo had requested three legions. His mutants were borderline idiotic. Zig suddenly jumped out of the brush behind the Cano-mutant, and seized its blaster. A safe distance away, he toned the blaster on the mutant, and fired off five rounds. The Dalmatian fell to the ground. The battle over, Cyrus activated the sprinkler, and the fires slowly went out. The hover craft lowered, and the stage began sinking back onto the conveyor belt. By the time they were down, the two mutant's bodies were neatly piled to the side. Zig stood at attention at the bottom of the ramp where the platform let off.

"Excellent work. Not that I'd have a choice at this moment, but I'm choosing to reinvest in your project,"

"Good to hear, Parvo. I'd like to show you something else." Cyrus led the way to the computer room. About the size of a football field and every square inch filled to the limit with computers and personnel, the computer room was an easy was of saying "center of all operations."

From there, Cyrus directed Parvo's attention to a large viewing screen which had six small divisions in it, each one showing a different prison-cell-like room. Each room had its own inhabitant.

"Behold, my secret weapon," Cyrus indicated the center screen. In the corner of the small room was one of the captured KOOYs. "Named Anemos by her peers, she has the ability to turn invisible, and has super speed when agitated or scared. She's loyal by choice to only two individuals, much like many of her brothers and sisters in creation, but as you know, the collars we fit our subjects with after they are trained allow us to divert their devotion, even against their will." The Australian shepherd, Anemos, if you were so inclined, wore a deep green collar with gold Celtic designs, though the detail was difficult to make out on the low-detail camera.

"Doesn't sound much like there's much going for this pooch. How's she your secret weapon, eh?" Parvo crossed his arms and raised one of his eyebrows. How he managed to lift that much weight in hair was beyond Cyrus.

"She'll have very little effect on the Rovers by herself. It's her attachment to KOOY102-TOF(173) that we're interested in. KOOY102-TOF(173) is better known by the fellow experiments as "Riot." I'm sure you'll recall my showing him to you once before. He's the one you tried to replicate in your labs, who just so happened, as I hear, to have escaped your lab compound single-handedly." Cyrus said plainly.

"Ah, yes, HTC# 972..." Parvo mused, hiding his embarrassment at that fact, and the fact that the project escaped him a second time in Sicily. _At least,_ he thought, _he don't know about Sicily._

"Yes, well. He had a certain ability or two that we had only recently created. He, along with two others, (not including your "Kurt"), are confirmed to be allies with the Rovers as of now. We need him back, at least until we can pry the DNA that we need to replicate his ability from him."

"And I suppose you want me to do this for you?"

"Well, the ability by itself is useless. He requires the company of others; otherwise he's just any other Rover in human disguise. Either way, I want him back. He has no less than three abilities, even though he can only use one of them on will."

"No less than three abilities? How is he even genetically stable?"

"That's one point, Parvo. Riot is anything but stable, genetically or otherwise. The fact is that it wouldn't take much at all to kill him. Any form of _major_ emotion would do the trick just fine, actually. Rage, sorrow, over-joy, love, just to name a few. His abilities literally make him as delicate as glass." That was a lie of course, but truth be told, Riot _was_ particularly unstable. Emotions were dangerous to him, but not deadly.

"Sounds to me like this Riot of yours took quite a bit of taking care of," Parvo mused.

"Unfortunately, he required almost routine memory-erasing. He was just too inquisitive, actually. Kept on getting to know too much. Eventually, we just fitted him with a F.W.S. I'm sure you have seen these around on your _tour_?"

"Ah yes, 'Free Will Suppressor'. I do believe I saw one on the…uh…what ever her name is. Agnes…or something." Parvo studied Zig with a new interest. "I can't help but notice that yer hound aint' wearing one of them?"

"Yes, well. He's endlessly loyal to our project, and has heartedly proven himself multiple times in the past."

"Humph! Putting your faith in a slave? Hardly what I'd expect of you, Cyrus."

Zig stepped forward, and looked down into Parvo's eyes, but didn't say a word. Parvo refused to look away, and the two engaged in a short stare-down. Cyrus watched Zig with some fascination.

The greyhound was usually strictly pacifist, in one manner of the word. He loved to fight, but always had to be given a direct order to do so. Very rarely did he ever step out of line, even with his free will.

"Well, it was reassuring to see your work being done around here, Cyrus. I look forward to meeting you again."

Parvo walked over to the room's sliding door, and left. Zig waited for some time before moving. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" he asked. His voice was not deep, but it had a rigid sternness to it that made you think twice about confronting him.

"Speak,"

"Sir, I don't trust this…_General _Parvo. Not even in the least. He is almost as foolish and clumsy as his half-witted cano-mutants."

"I agree, personally. However, I have a contract with him that I plan on carrying out. We wanted an army, and we are finally ready to start making one."

"Then why don't we?"

"Because, Riot has something that I personally would like every one of these soldiers to have. It is critical, and could mean the difference between success and failure for this army."

"And what would that be?"

"That would be a closely guarded secret at the moment." The Kennel Master thought for a long moment before continuing. "Zig, I'm granting you full rights to four KOOY class warriors, one of which is Anemos. I need Riot back, and you're the one to get him to me alive. I could care less about the rest of the Road Rovers, and that includes the other two stowaways and Parvo's cheap knock-off of Riot." The Kennel Master pulled off a gold and black bracelet, and handed it over to Zig. It was the "control" to Anemos. He gave a long glare at Zig before saying in a low tone, "Bring…him…back."

Naturally, Zig was delighted to have this mission. He had a personal rivalry with Riot spawned by his jealousy for Riot's importance. Zig was either going to bring Riot back, or die trying.


	2. We Are Rovers

**Part II**

"Rise and shine!" came Hunter's voice.

Groggily, I opened my eyes. "I swear, it's only been like, five minutes..." I mumbled. It probably wasn't that long, but it sure felt that short. Exile, in the bed next to mine, seemed to be feeling the same way.

"I'm with you... why don't they respect sleep?" he wondered aloud to me.

"Beats me..." I answered. I slowly got out of my bed, got a glass of cold water, and splashed it on my face. I woke up enough to quickly get my weapons together and strap them to my back. "What's the occasion?" I called out to Hunter, outside the door.

"You'll see..." he replied. Exile had managed to get up, too, and we both went for the door. I got to it first, and opened it. The light blinded us for a second, but when our eyes adjusted, we didn't see anyone.

"Hunter?" I called out.

"Over here!" his voice replied. We turned to the left, where it was coming from. Hunter, Colleen, Blitz, and the strike team except for Kyle and Blake, were gathered around someone... a human. I raised an eyebrow. Even though I had come to the Rovers a human, I was wary of this new one. Exile and I walked over to the gathering.

"So..." I began, "Who's this?" I took a good look at this new human. Clearly the Rovers had been greeting and trying to get to know him. The strike team merely acknowledged his presence and the fact that he was a new person to this place. The human, on the other hand, was probably more wary of this new crowd than I was of him. I could tell that immediately from the look on his face.

"This," explained Colleen, "is Riot. We rescued 'im in the desert from a bloody situation with a couple a' his friends." I looked at Hunter, who seemed to be glad to meet the new person, showing some of his golden lab personality that he still had in him. Blitz, on the other hand, was also wary of this person. I took another good look at the new human, and kinda realized why. He had this weird metal collar around his neck.

"Is that a fashion statement or something?" I whispered to Exile.

"I doubt it," he whispered in reply. "Mind-control, by the look..." I instinctively raised my hand to one of my sword's handles, but upon seeing that Riot was unarmed, I let it go.

"This," Hunter explained to Riot, "is Exile..."

Exile nodded and said, "Nice to meet you,"

"...and Kurt,"

"Pleased to meet you, Riot," I said, and noticed how tense he was.

.

One moment, I had just been gathering my balance, and the next, I was surrounded by Road Rovers. All of their names were blending and mixing in my ears. Secretly, I had hidden a knife in my scrub pants, though I could see now that I wouldn't need it. I looked at the two newest faces, and couldn't help but notice some outstanding details on one of them. The husky was Exile, and his name burned away at my memory, but the memory was blocked by a thick wall of haze. The collie was Colleen, and her name had the same reaction. As far as the rest, their names were just more words to remember. It was the newest German shepherd, however, that had my attention, even though I didn't make eye contact with him.

Kurt. My memory wasn't pulling at his name at all, but even so. He had the basic form of all the other Rovers, but somehow seemed…different. It was a very subtle difference, but I could detect it. It triggered memories of creatures that were far worse off. They were known only as "Hunter-seekers," even though they had no affiliation with Hunter. They were hideous, violent things, brutally caught between human and animal form. Kurt had a similar physique to the Rovers, who had a semi-natural look, even with the armor. I shivered slightly. I had been forced to fight with one of the Hunter-seekers once. I didn't remember the battle, and it was the only memory-wash I was thankful for, because I remember having had nightmares for a week. I ruled out the possibility of Kurt being another runaway experiment, though that was my first inclination. He just…wasn't the same as the rest of the Rovers, but was unlike any experiment I had ever seen.

I realized suddenly that someone was talking to me…

.

Riot seemed completely unresponsive as Exile tried to talk. Exile turned back to me, and shrugged, "Is he deaf?"

"No, I'm not so fortunate," Riot said. It was the first time I heard him speak. His voice was… more like what you'd _expect_ the Rovers to sound like. His r's were heavy, and his voice was slightly strained. I assumed automatically that this was from a lack of good rest and food, but either way, his voice was going to take some getting used to.

"Ah, so he does talk!" Exile exclaimed.

"Often enough. He was talking plenty earlier," Colleen explained. Riot's eyes shot up at Exile, and fixed on him. Exile had been silently studying the collar on Riot's neck. Riot had the same eyes as Exile, I noticed.

"Can I help you?" Riot asked smoothly.

Exile glared at the collar on Riot's neck. "It is mind-control, isn't it? I recognize design from somewhere…"

Riot cocked his head slightly, and winced as he touched the collar. "If it was, you wouldn't know me, or even have met me." He sighed. "I can't tell you much, but it's an action-control device called a F.W.S. Long story short, it makes me a remote-control car."

"So, where's the control?" I asked.

"Safe and in no immediate danger of harming anyone." Riot replied.

I wanted to ask him if he was sure about that, but I figured we could defend ourselves if that didn't happen to be the case. Something was bothering me about him, but I couldn't put a finger on it. If anything, it wasn't a good sign. However, I also noticed that something about me was bothering Riot. "Hold on a sec..." I said, shuffling off to the debriefing room.

The Master was waiting for me there. I asked him a couple questions regarding my human and anthro-canine form. He basically told me pretty much what I wanted to hear about them, and knowing him, he was telling the truth about it. With that in mind, I headed out, and took a detour around the crowd to get to the transport tubes which the Rovers used to get from their home cities to here. I took a deep breath and stepped into one of them. The smoke, or steam, or whatever it was, engulfed me for a minute and when I emerged, I looked at my hands, felt my face, all the stuff to make sure I was human. I was, fortunately, and I headed over back to the crowd. On my way there, I heard some voices. I stopped and listened closely, and noticed that one of them belonged to Blake, and the other belonged to a female that sounded strangely similar to Kyle. I traced where they were coming from, and it led me to a room. I pressed my ear to the door.

"Damn! Someone's at the door!" exclaimed the female voice. There was a bit of rustling, and then the door was opened by Blake. "Uh, Blake?" I inquired, "Was it just me, or are you with a girl in there?"

"What? Nah, there's no girl in here. Kyle's caught a cold, and his voice sounds a bit higher, that's all," explained Blake. I noticed he strained a bit on Kyle's name, but I thought nothing of it at the time. I looked at Kyle, who nodded in agreement. "OK, then," I said, "just wondering where you guys were. Oh, and just so you know, Hunter and Colleen picked up this human, whose name is Riot. He seems a little reserved; but... personally, I'd be on your guard. I've got a bad feeling about him for some reason... he doesn't seem to trust any of us, really."

Kyle nodded, and I nodded back, closing the door behind me. I hurried off back to the crowd. I'd talk to them about that a little later. Their story didn't sound too convincing to me...

I returned to the crowd, in my human form. It was a little nicer, as I was more used to that form, having been in that all my life. Everyone looked at me a little dumbstruck. Hunter, Blitz, Colleen, and Exile tried to silently ask me why I had done that. Jack, Gordon, and Gunther didn't see much wrong with it, as they did recall clearly that they'd met me in this form back in Sicily. "I think he might feel a little less alone in his situation if he saw a human face," I explained. "I just mean to show that we don't mean any harm, if nothing else." The others nodded, making sense of it.

"I've always told my men to make good impressions on allies, and bad impressions on enemies," said Gunther. Gordon and Jack nodded in agreement.

"Gunther's right," added Jack, "no need to make more enemies than we already have."

"That's why we left our weapons where they were when we got up," added Gordon. I realized at that time that I had mine on me, clearly visible to anyone. Well, it was a bit late to lay down my weapons anyway, so I didn't think about it too much.

"Hey, speaking of where we left stuff... where's Blake and Kyle?" asked Jack.

"I came by them... Blake was with Kyle, and Kyle's contracted something and isn't feeling too well," I explained. I remembered that Riot didn't know who they were. "Oh, Riot... These guys are Gunther, Gordon, and Jack," I explained, motioning to each of them as I named them. "They, including Blake and Kyle, aren't part of the Road Rovers per se, but even if they were, the only thing different about them would be that they'd be wearing the blue armor."

"Long story short," cut in Colleen, "they're with us."

I nodded. Blitz walked over to me. "Kurt..." he whispered, "I don't know if I can trust himm... it's that collar..."

"Keep your guard up," I whispered in reply, "He doesn't seem to trust us, either. But still try to be friendly to him. Maybe he is trustworthy and we don't see it just yet..."

Blitz nodded slightly, and I focused my attention back to the group. "Well, let's try to not bombard Riot with all this group attention," I suggested, "I wouldn't want him to feel all intimidated or anything by us..."

The rest of the day, Riot made little effort to get to know us personally, though he did show some interest in our base's security network. This earned a shocked glance from all of us, Blitz and I especially so. Riot seemed to catch on pretty quick to the mood, and swiftly explained his inquiry.

"Believe me, this is not a matter of networking defenses. I mean only to ask in fear of what may be out there. I don't want a security layout of this place, just an idea of how well defended it is."

"Uh, buddy, that's still mighty strange of you to ask," Hunter said.

"Never mind, then. I didn't mean any offense, I just want you to know that you may want whatever defenses you have to be on stand-by." Riot said a bit quietly.

"Why would we need to do that?" I asked. In actuality, our previous break-in fiasco already put them on full alert, but I wanted to know what he was so worried about.

Riot looked around at the group, shook his head and rubbed his eyes as though they were fogged. "It's probably nothing. I'd just have your defenses ready."

We all exchanged looks. Blitz was practically itching with anxiety and mistrust. Well, then again, I think we all were. Riot had yet to give us a reason to trust him. He simply stared into space as we sat in silence.

"Perhaps we should get some sleep? I know I'm beat, and I haven't done much all day." Hunter suggested.

"I agree, but I'd like to talk to Hunter, Kurt and Gunther before you retire," the Master said. None of us had seen him enter, but we didn't exactly jump into the air. We all gave a brisk salute, and exchanged a few goodnights. I noticed Riot was staring at the Master intently, though I also noticed that he held nothing even close to a hostile stance.

As everyone filed off to their various quarters (and Colleen lead Riot to his) Hunter, Gunther and I made our way to the briefing room. When we arrived, the Master was already waiting for us.

"As exciting as Riot's appearance is for all of you, we've got some more serious matters to tend to. General Parvo and a small force of his have been spotted by one of our satellites in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We don't know exactly what he's doing up there, but I intend for us to find out. Just under ten years ago, a massive amount of material was ordered to that region. The materials vanished into thin air, and were never even paid for. Our best guess is that he's been building some kind of base up there for some time. I'm sending you in to investigate. You'll leave in two days time, but I'm telling you now that this is only a recon mission. No fancy business and…"

The Master was suddenly cut off as the door flung open. Riot stood there, head down slightly, but otherwise as though he were ready to jump into a fight at any moment. Was I getting over-suspicious of this guy? At that time, I sure didn't think so...

"Hunter-seekers." He said, and lifted his head. His face showed nothing in the form of emotion.

"What?" I asked.

"They're why you should have your security up, and they have nothing to do with Hunter. It's just what they're called." He said, loosening his stance slightly. "I can't tell you much, but they're bad news if you don't know what you're dealing with."

"Thank you, Riot. We'll put our security on alert." The Master said calmly.

"Don't thank me. I like you, but I don't trust you." Riot dropped a knife that had been hidden in the belt of his scrub pants to the ground. I drew both of my swords, Gunther drew his concealed sidearm, and Hunter, with the rest of us, took a defensive stance. Riot simply turned and left without a word.

"Kind of creepy, isn't he?" Gunther noted.

"I dunno. I still like him, but the collar is something else. I keep thinking about what he said about it. Making him a remote control and all," Hunter replied.

I bit my lip, and sheathed my swords. His actions so far only communicated more mistrust.

"Lock your doors, guys," I said, "the last thing any of us wants is to wake up and find that some of have been murdered in our sleep. Tomorrow, that collar's gotta come off of his neck. One way or another."

.

Bernard was waiting for me around the corner. Colleen lead me to where I was to sleep, but I had gone to check up on my two friends the second after she had left. Bernard had been wide awake, and Captain was getting there. Bernard and I helped Captain get on his feet. His healing ability worked best when he was standing. By the time Captain was able to stand on his own, I had already talked to Bernard. He voted for chancing it out on our own. Captain had agreed, though he was on pain meds, so I didn't weigh his opinion too heavily. Either way, I had given Bernard the full low-down on what had happened. He already knew a little from the short periods in time where he had been conscious, and as much as he wanted to meet the Rovers, he had suggested that we were only a threat to them.

I agreed. Once Captain was awake fully, and everyone was asleep, we got to work. I felt bad for stealing food and water from people who had just saved our lives not a week ago, but if there were going to be hunter-seekers on our trail, the Rovers were in danger.

"Hunter-seeker" was a feared word among the residents of the Kennel Master's lab. They were the early experiments, and lab rats for new ideas. All and all, they were horrible to even look at. Caught brutally between human and animal, they spoke no language, and were like walking corpses. I had fought one once, and that fight still gives me nightmares to this day. The thing screeched and yelled like a dieing cat. Its pale eyes were colored only by bloodshot, and the poor thing didn't have a jaw. They were hard to look at, and harder to kill, enough said.

One way or the other, we had to leave. Bernard found the kitchen, and I managed to scratch up a few small bags. I found a small note pad and a pen, and quickly jotted down a letter. Hopefully, they wouldn't be too angered, but at the time, this was no concern of mine. There was the hanger to consider, but we decided to draw the line of thievery in the kitchen. Besides that, none of us knew how to even start their vehicles, much less operate one.

The hanger did, however, provide an easy way out. Together Bernard, Captain and I slipped off into the night, quick and silent, leaving nothing but a letter behind. We had a job to do, and I for one wouldn't rest until I had seen it through.


	3. Riot on the Run

**Part 3 **

**Section 1**– S.C. Wolfe

_Dear Road Rovers,_

_We do very honestly thank you for your rescuing us, your medical aid and hospitality. However, we cannot stay here, not even long enough to say farewell. There are forces out there that are very likely hunting for us that we do not think you could handle. I do not mean offense by saying this, but you must believe me when I say so. We're taking to the desert, and will hopefully find some more fitting terrain as we go. We have taken only a small amount of food, and a weapon each._

_We thank you again, and look forward to meeting you again in the future._

_Branch KOOY-(173)_

_Riot, Bernard, Captain_

"Come, comrade. Is almost daylight." Bernard said in his rough accent. He was sounding more Russian then German these days, but not long ago, I was one of very few who fully understood his accent that had been caught roughly between the two languages.

"Alright, I'm up." I said. Bernard gave me a rough pat on the shoulder, and got up to check on Captain. Captain wasn't doing to well. Neither was Bernard, but Captain had it worse. Almost every joint in his body was stiff, but not cripplingly so. Bernard's left arm was giving him some real trouble. Captain was able to heal to some degree, thanks in part to a healing ability, but Bernard lacked this ability and so he suffered from a broken elbow. As for me, I was fine. I had taken the butt of a gun to the back of the head, but else wise…

We all had our problems, really. I got to work on making us some form of what I hoped could pass for breakfast, but which turned out to be not much more than dry bread with the unpleasant crunch of sand. "Free of charge," I said as I handed out the rations. Captain nodded slightly, and Bernard gave a mumbled thanks. I sat down with my own chunk of rock-like bread. At least it tasted alright, as though it had been slightly sweetened.

It wasn't until about midday that we finally got under way. The sand was already heating up, but I felt nothing on my weathered feet. Even so, the pads on Bernard's and Captain's feet must have been a luxury. On the other hand, their thick fur was already beginning to burn them up, while my bare skin was actually just warming up in the sun. Bernard's tail wagged, showing his joy to be on the move again, while Captain's seemed limp and twitchy. He was either exhausted or in some serious pain, though he'd never admit to either.

We passed over the barren waste land. Every plant seemed to have something it wanted to jab you with, and the few animals we saw were all skinny and ill looking. "I remember why I hate the desert now." I said with a slightly parched voice. It was the first anyone had spoken for several hours now. Bernard responded with a laugh, and Captain kicked one of the plants.

"Bah. Is not all bad. Still have sun to keep company with." Bernard jested.

"Yeah? Some company. I'd rather have the moon for company. It's cooler and not as blinding." Captain joked back.

"I'm not so sure I agree with Bernard on this one," I said dryly. Bernard gave me a sideways look. "So where do you think we should end up, anyway?" I tried to make conversation.

"Anywhere with a forest. I wasn't trained for any other environment." Captain said as he tried to shield his eyes from the relentless sun.

"I agree. Sun is not agreeing with me." Bernard mumbled.

"We'll have to come back eventually. We still have friends out here," I said.

"Am agreeing with this also, but we are weak now. Will need better weapons than kitchen knife to fight lab defenses." Bernard noted.

Captain laughed, "_You_ may not be able to, but Riot and I could do it!"

I smiled a little, but only a little. I was half-considering taking a gamble against Bernard's words.

"Eh? What's that?" Bernard pointed in the distance. I looked out, and could see a small number of silhouetted figures in the distant sands. My first thought was that the Rovers had come out after us, and then reality hit. The Rover base was several days behind us. I could see the others were thinking the same thing.

"What do we do?" I asked calmly despite my shaking hands. "Those could well be hunter-seekers."

"Definitely a hunter force, see? They've adjusted their course toward us. They know we're here." Captain said.

"Could make run for cover of dunes to our right. We'd be there long before them." Bernard suggested as he peered to his right.

"If they're hunter-seekers, the last thing we need is to not see them coming." I added.

We stood still as the enemy approached, not sure of what to do. Slowly, the group came closer and closer, growing into solid forms, and less like black figures.

"I may have known," I mumbled as I made out several familiar figures. They were with the lab, and the Kennel Master. Most immediately, I recognized the massive form of Zig. He was with the KOOY branch, and a stubborn servant of the Kennel Master himself. He stood at just past seven feet tall, and was a deadly warrior. That wasn't what scared me about this group, however. Instead, it was that Anemos was with them. At first I thought they were holding my old friend hostage against me, but then I spied the collar on her neck. They weren't holding her against me; they were _sending _her against me!

Zig had ten cano-mutants with him, and an additional three members of the lab. They were most likely going to be KOOY and BRAW branches. The BRAW were made with nothing but hand-to-hand combat in mind, where KOOY were made for fighting, stealth, and survivability. Those two branches were the only two that were still in full production, as they were the only two that were producing favorable results.

Once in speaking distance, the hunter task force stopped, and Zig spoke. "Well, now. We're out for a jog this fine morning, and look what we find! Riot, it's been too long. How have you been?"

I didn't answer, which only served to anger him. If there was one thing he loved, it was a power rush. Being so, he ordered in his cano-mutants. I had faced cano-mutants before. They weren't very smart, but that wasn't to say that they weren't dangerous. I didn't know too much about them other than the labs had stopped producing them long ago, and they served only as cannon fodder now.

Three headed around on our right, three on our left, and four came right at us. The bulk of the group was coming for me. Captain's ability was going to have a limited effect here, but Bernard's super strength had an immediate result. Two cano-mutants went flying ten feet into the air, and a third followed. Already, the right flank was clear. I drew my knife, and got to work on the middle.

I flipped the blade through the gut of the first mutant, and beat the second over the temple with the butt of the blade. They both fell to the ground. Suddenly, I was surrounded. Two came from the front and three from the back. Somehow, they had gotten past Captain. That didn't matter now. The two in front of me jumped at me, and I threw myself to the ground. They flew right over me, knocking down two of their companions. The one left standing jumped at me. I flipped over, and dug my heels into its stomach, forcing a loud gagging noise from the brute. I had to quickly flip my knife in order to parry a swipe of one of the cano-mutant's claws. I drove my knife wildly in the air, blocking, attacking, and blocking again. The chaos lasted for a full three minuets. These were no normal cano-mutants. These had drive where most others would have fled.

I stood, drenched in sweat and blood, and saw why I had been over run. Bernard was facing down with two BRAW and Captain was dueling with a fellow KOOY. This was bad. I decided Bernard was in more immediate need of help, so I ran to his aid, briefly noticing Zig, who stood at the side, watching with a wicked smile.

The first thing I noticed was the apparent abilities of the two BRAW. They very rarely had abilities, and even more rarely was it something too terribly useful. They both had super-strength. Normally, I hate a sneak attack, but we were being overwhelmed. I ran as fast as I could, and once I was sure I had a clear shot, I hurled my knife. It landed with a soft _thud_ in the first BRAW's chest. He fell to the ground soundlessly. Seeing his partner fall, the second BRAW made a fatal mistake. He turned on me, and allowed Bernard to land a solid blow to the neck.

Our targets down, Bernard and I moved to aid Captain. Despite his obvious disadvantage, being that his joints were stiff and he was only recently woken from a light coma, Captain actually held the upper hand. the KOOY that he fought was either new to the battle field, or having a panic attack, as Captain was landing five hits to her one. Just as we were finally near victory, things gave a heavy turn for the worst.

Two things happened simultaneously. First, a shadow flew over the landscape as Zig preformed one of his "super-jumps." He flicked both of his wrists, and the claws on his hands rained down on the field in a deadly rain. Captain was spared the first two hits by the KOOY. She had jumped in the way of the projectile, and I wasn't surprised when I saw the F.W.S. on her neck. She'd rather die than have no free will. Captain took three hits; in the upper leg, in the gut, and one just above his collar bone.

I bit my tong till it bled in rage. "Zig! I'm going to kill you!" My very veins shook in fury, and it felt as though the ground below me shook as well. I ran forward on barely stable feet. The ground _was_ shaking! I didn't care. Zig. I was going to kill him! So help me if Captain was dead, Zig would be begging for death by the time I was done with him. The air in front of me shimmered, and suddenly I was on the ground gagging for air. Anemos took shape out of thin air. Damn, I had forgotten about her.

Bernard was still running for Zig. I struggled to get up and follow him, but Anemos held me down. "Riot," she whispered, "He's still got two claws on the hand that's hidden behind his back." I could hear the collar on her neck shock her in punishment for telling me this. Knowing I had no other option, I gave a heavy kick to her back, right where there are no ribs to protect the soft spots.

Anemos fell to the ground with a heavy "gha!" I stood clumsily, and ran. The ground had stopped shaking when I had, but began to shake again. I didn't notice through my rage. Bernard was on the ground, but still moving. A claw stood from his upper leg, but I could tell it hadn't hit any vital arteries. One claw in Bernard, which meant one was left.

Zig stood perfectly still, smiling, watching me approach. My rage hadn't died. The ground threatened to shake me from my feet as visible waves shot across the land, making a near-by dune noticeably shrink in size. I was still fifty yards off when Zig jumped. Luckily, I had anticipated this move, as it was one of the few that he ever really did. About ten feet in the air, Zig flicked his wrist, and the remaining claw shot out.

More from reflex than anything, my hand ran a path across my chest, catching the claw inched from my heart. So much for wanting me alive…

I continued walking forward, Zig's claw in hand. His other claws were already growing back, but they'd be of little use for a few more moments yet. A cruel smile cracked on my lips as I watched him re-assess his situation. "You're mine." I growled, not realizing that I had actually _growled_.

I was going to drive the claw through his heart, wipe his cynicism and stubborn devotion to the Kennel Master in his rotten face. Instead, the claw vanished in a puff of black smoke, and for a moment, I was surrounded in grey smog. Unfazed, and still on rumbling ground, I kept walking. Ten yards off. Five yards off. I wound up for a punch to his gut, but when it flew I was only meat by thin air. "Wha-!?" I stuttered. Anemos appeared in front of me again, Zig at her side.

"So sorry to take that moment from you, dear boy, but we've got what we need," Zig said. Anemos…how had she…_teleported!_ She had the ability to teleport! How? I didn't know she could, but then again, I didn't know a lot of things. One way or the other, all I could do was watch as Anemos faded into thin air with Zig. I couldn't catch them if I tried.

The ground wasn't shaking anymore, allowing me the ability to sprint back to my friends. Bernard was next to Captain, who was coughing heavily. We didn't have the proper medical care he needed, but I knew who did. This was going to be an odd little reunion, but we needed to get back to the Rovers, though I hadn't the slightest idea how we were going to make it in time. Captain was bleeding badly. I looked at Bernard, and at Captain, realizing that they were both looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You told me you hated that form," Captain said.

"Huh?"

"Look down, puppy." Bernard said.

I looked at my hands. They were covered in black fur with white on the backside of the arms, my chest and the insides of my legs, which wasn't all-visible through my scrubs. I sighed quietly. "Didn't even know I changed..."

"Bah, were too focused on tall, dark and cowardly." Bernard said.

I very quickly noticed how hot I was getting in all of that fur. Changing from that form was relatively easy. All it took was concentrating on what it was like to be in human form, and thick smog seemed to come from thin air.

I cooled off instantly as the air hit my bare skin. I took a second to allow my senses to reset to the new form before I got back to the moment. Bernard was hurt and Captain was bleeding out. We used strips from our pants to cover the wounds, and got to work on a double-time pace back in the direction we had come from. Neither Bernard nor I wanted to admit it, but Captain only had a few hours left in him. What were we thinking, leaving the Rovers in the first place? I hadn't noticed it until just then, but there was a familiar sound coming from over head…

**Section 2** - Young Swordsman

"Somehow I'm not entirely surprised by this..." I said to the Rovers and the strike team, who had gathered around the area where Riot and his friends had left us a note. Kyle had heard noises last night, and had apparently just missed Riot and the others leaving as he crept out of his room with his rifle in hand, but had discovered the note instead.

"I had a feeling that kid would do this if he didn't suddenly turn on us and slaughter us all in our sleep..." commented Gunther. Blake, Gordon, Jack and I nodded in agreement. Kyle hesitated, but then did so as well. The thought apparently sounded a bit too morbid for the Rovers, but I think they agreed anyway.

"Well, a' least 'e didn't..." added Colleen.

"Which I'm completely thankful for! I didn't think he even consider it, and I'm happy I was right," added Hunter. Blitz made a sigh of relief.

"So... we not go after them?" inquired Exile. We all paused and thought on that for a minute.

"If we assume that Riot was right about that huge mass of elite forces heading our way, then that would be a _really_ bad idea," Jack spoke first.

"Tactically," added Blake, "we'd be at a bit of a disadvantage. There are no structures out there. Here, at least, we're more familiar with our surroundings and that should prove to our advantage."

"There's a thought," mused Colleen, who seemed to be impressed by Jack and Blake's logic. "Remind me to listen to you two more often when we think of plans of attack!" she half-joked. Hunter, Gunther and I rolled our eyes. It was true that sometimes Hunter wasn't a genius at making plans, but he was for sure above the average person in some cases.

"So," I interjected, "I guess the verdict is that we not go after them, and wait for this force, if it even exists, to come here?"

"Basically," said Gordon.

"Somehow, I still feel bad letting them just be out there in the barren desert..." said Kyle. (I had noticed that Kyle was one of, if not the most empathetic one on the strike team, and possibly of the Rovers, too.) Colleen, Exile, and Hunter looked at me with that look that said "You see? Why didn't you consider that?" I bit my lip. They had a point. They could likely starve or die of thirst out there. I almost did. However, they had taken supplies vital for survival, like some water and some of our food supplies.

"We'll need to think about it," said Gunther, after Blake, Gordon, Jack and I failed to break the silence. "Under the best of circumstances, which are still pretty bad in this kind of climate, they should be alive by tomorrow, assuming they didn't come across any hostile army," he assured us, "This is not a time for rash, poorly thought-out actions, so let's not take any if they're not necessary."

I immediately went to check my arms, to make sure all my weapons that had sharp edges (i.e arrows, swords, knife) were in tip top shape in case this imminent attack Riot warned us about came upon us. I also took the time to re-string my bow, so the string wouldn't snap from natural wear-and-tear, even though I hadn't really plucked the string nearly that much. Once that was over with, I went around to personally check on the defenses this place had, to make sure they were on full alert. I came across numerous auto-turrets, booby traps that couldn't be seen unless you looked _really_ close, and laser-triggered and weight-triggered alarms. _This'll at least decrease their numbers a bit!_ I thought to myself, laughing slightly at the understatement. It couldn't take out all of the enemies that might be in this force, but it would do considerable damage that would make average troops reconsider entering this place. Once that was checked, I headed to the briefing room and checked the computer that used the large screen in that room as a monitor. That seemed to be monitoring the entrances, walls, and windows by video cameras and through various sensors. Satisfied that the security was fully up and running, I returned to my room. I had noticed that everyone seemed to have been off doing the same thing as I was doing earlier. I didn't blame them. I don't think that, after a break-in, anyone would take to the idea of another break-in very lightly.

Exile and Colleen were working out in the training room where I had once gone to prove that I was going to be an asset to the Rovers. Exile mainly was using his ice/heat vision and throwing large, heavy objects at the targets or throwing the fake enemies themselves. Colleen was working on her various martial arts moves on what looked like some special dummies that actually reacted and moved their appendages as opposed to just standing there shooting. The training session soon ended when the strike team, in full arms and armor, requested to use the room. Colleen and Exile, panting and seeming like they were through, nodded and headed off to the showers. Once Colleen and Exile cleared the room, the strike team went in to practice arrangements in a desert-like terrain, and then a mountainous terrain, complete with simulated heat for the desert, and coldness with lower air pressure for the mountainous terrain. Hunter was in the simulator, practicing flying the Sky Rover and various other flying devices. Blitz was harder to find, if anyone would be looking for him, but he was practicing his moves with his claws on invisible enemies in his own room that he shared with Gordon.

When I started to head out to find the others, I was stalled by the strike team passing through, practicing their formations in this place, should an attacker ever come here. I nodded and let them pass, and continued on. When I finally got to the door of the briefing room, I was beaten to the handle by Hunter, who was on the other side. I looked at him, and asked "What're you doing in there?"

"I'm going out to get Riot back!" he replied with enthusiasm.

I smiled and nodded. "Might want to take Colleen with you," I added, "I don't think that they'll be in such good physical condition when you get them..." I paused, then added, "well, you know, just as a precaution, you know?" I didn't want to be pessimistic. Hunter nodded, understanding what I wanted to convey.

"Want to come with us?" he asked.

"Ah, I'd like to," I responded, "but I've got something to deal with over here."

Hunter had a bit of a confused look. "Is it really that important?" he asked.

"It might turn out to be, or it might not, but I'd like to get it over with in case it is really important."

Hunter nodded. "Let me know when I get back, OK?"

"Got it," I said.

With that, Hunter headed out to the hangar. I headed off to the transdogmafier room. I decided to step into the machine to get myself back into my anthro German shepherd look, as I was sure that I might be more able to get an honest answer from the question I was about to ask.

I had waited about twenty minutes when I saw Blake, Kyle, Gordon, and Jack head back to their makeshift rooms (the HQ only originally had one for each of the original Rovers), from the showers. I headed over to Blake and Kyle's room after they entered, and knocked on it. "Yeah?" came Blake's voice. "It's Kurt," I replied, "I need to talk to you two." There was some hesitation, but eventually the door was opened. Kyle was sitting on his bed, and Blake was looking hesitant. I stepped in and closed the door behind me. "Look," I said, "I want to make this simple. Blake, I didn't buy your story yesterday. I need you to tell the truth, because this may be a security issue..."

"There isn't another girl in here..." Kyle interrupted. I looked at him, then back to Blake, who was looking at Kyle in a rather shocked manner. "Kurt," continued Kyle, "can you keep a secret?" he asked.

"That depends," I answered, "is it something that could cause something really bad to happen to this place or the rest of us?"

"No."

"Then I'm pretty sure I can."

Kyle took a deep breath, and moved his hand to his neck, and then reached down under the collar of his shirt. I heard Blake gulp behind me. I heard a slight peeling sound, like a band-aid being pulled off.

"What is that...?" I inquired.

What happened next made me jump in shock.

"It's a voice-disguiser," Kyle answered in what was undoubtedly a female voice.

"We normally use them to change our voices temporarily if we need to disguise ourselves," added Blake, "which is pretty much what's going on here..."

"I'm not a spy," continued Kyle, "but often, female applicants aren't likely to get on a strike team such as this. I wanted to, and therefore I disguised myself as the opposite gender. I took the name Kyle because it's close to my real name; Kylie."

My jaw had dropped already. "So... you've been pretending to be a guy this entire time? Even before the time in Sicily?"

"Pretty much," replied Kylie.

"How long did Blake know this for?"

"For a while," answered Blake, "Her voice disguiser malfunctioned or short-circuited or something, and I was the first one who noticed it, and she kept her secret with me."

"I think most of the others would have done the same, but I do _not _want Gunther to know..." she added.

I nodded. "Lips are sealed," I assured her, motioning my hand across my mouth. "Well, thanks for clearing that up. I'll do what I can to make sure nobody knows about that."

I wanted to leave, but to leave right then and there seemed... well, rude. I didn't know what to say, but I eventually broke the silence and asked "Um... is there anything else I might need to know...?"

"Well..." said Kylie, "contrary to what you may be thinking, I'm not in a relationship with Blake. I mean, we're friends, but not really closer than that. If we were, or if I was with any of the other strike team members, it might've blown my cover."  
I nodded.

"Oh, one more thing," said Kylie, standing up, looking like she wanted to just get something over with. "I gotta do this or I'll shake to death..." She walked over to me and quickly kissed my lips. My eyes widened.

"Holy..." I said to myself, unable to believe what had just happened.

"I've kinda felt that way since I first saw you in Sicily. But, that's all I feel safe doing right now. Like I said, I don't want to blow my cover," she explained. My heart suddenly felt like it contained pure helium.

During all this, Hunter and Colleen were flying the Sky Rover over to Riot's position. It was the middle of the desert, and the two were able to make out the shapes of three figures. "That's them," said Colleen, pointing to them. Hunter nodded and lowered the craft closer to the ground so they could see the figures more clearly. They could easily make out Riot's two companions, but the third person did not look familiar. Riot, for what they knew, was human, and they saw a third cano-mutant attending to one of the companions, clearly wounded. Hunter managed to quickly land the craft within ten yards of the three, and opened the door on the side, so he and Colleen could bring them into the Sky Rover and back to HQ. When the doors opened, Riot stood there with his two friends. Captain was terribly hurt, and there was a cloud of vultures not too far off in the distance.

"Good to see you again," Riot said neutrally. He had one of Captain's arms slung around his shoulder, helping him stand.

It was silent for a long moment before Bernard broke the silence, "Were right about hunter force, if this makes feelings better. Comrade needs help though."

No more words were spoken as they all got into the small aircraft, and jumped off back to HQ. Nobody noticed the slight _thud_ on the hull as they were lifting into the air.


	4. Coming Home

Part

**Part 4**

**Section 1** – S.C. Wolfe

The long white halls were bright and gave the illusion of heat, though he hardly recognized the cool touch of air through his rage. Riot! That slug, that filth, that…that _worm_! Zig gave a heavy step, cracking the marble floor underfoot. He hated Riot more than he hated anything on this good green earth. One of these days, he wasn't going to have the element of surprise, one of these days, Zig was going to catch Riot without his friends, and then…_then_ he was going to die. And Zig would be the one to kill him.

Anemos quietly trotted beside Zig. She was a friend of Riot's, but was being held against her will with an out-of-date F.W.S.

The collar was a fitting design for such an item, and was almost humorous. Of course, it would not be so if he were wearing one. An F.W.S., a Free Will Suppressor.

Anyway, he had a job to do, and he intended to do it. After passing through several more corridors, Zig found himself standing in a viewing stand. It was a simple room with spectator seats, such as found in a sport stadium, and a small number of controls to manipulate the ground below. This was the newer of two arenas that were in the lab, and it was Cyrus's favorite. It was currently set to a forest terrain, but it had multiple options such as city, ruins, grassy plains, and even barren mountain tops. There were things moving in there. Cano-mutants. Probably ten of them.

Cyrus lent forward in his cushioned seat, and watched with child-like fascination as his favorite in-the-works hunter seeker got to work. Codenamed "Psycho", the hunter-seeker was notorious for his ability to use electrical currents in the air and in the ground. Psycho was the only hunter-seeker to still know how to talk clearly. He even looked mostly normal, but it was like talking to a mad-man. Zig watched passively as Psycho made quick work of four cano-mutants with is bare hands, and shot an electric bolt to finish off the fifth.

Psycho gave an insane laugh that was audible even trough the bullet-proof glass, making Zig shiver. Psycho side stepped into the shadow of a tree, and vanished into thin air. He was like Anemos in that way, except that where Anemos could be invisible at anytime, Psycho had to have a shadow to hide in, even at night time. You could see him, though. Anemos made a ripple in the air when she was "prone." As for Psycho, his eyes were still visible, and glowed a brilliant green and blood red. It was like something from a horror movie. The five remaining cano-mutants came around the bend, only to find their comrades' bodies. They fanned out and began randomly firing into the forest, failing to notice the floating eyes. One of the cano-mutants finally spotted the emerald and the ruby, and bellowed to his remaining comrades.

Psycho leapt from his position in the shadow. A long, blade-like claw shot out from his elbow, and he drove it into the cano-mutant's heart. The claws were almost standard-armament in the labs. They were extremely effective, and more than easy to conceal. Very few creatures in the lab were able to shoot their claws like Zig, however, and even fewer were capable of aiming when they did.

Psycho wasn't able to detach the claw-blade in his elbow, but he made good use of it none the less. He got to work, cutting down the remaining cano-mutants, laughing and crying both at once. Zig was going to have nightmares if he had to listen to that creep much longer.

The Kennel Master turned in his seat to face Zig, and they sat in a moment of silence. "Well? Where is he?"

"Who?" Zig asked.

"Riot, you idiot, where is Riot!" Cyrus seemed to recognize at that point that only Zig and Anemos had returned. "Ah, I see." He folded his hands, and leant back in his chair.

"For all it's worth, the hunter-seeker is alive as well, and is likely with Riot as we speak." Zig said calmly.

"It is worth enough to me, however, that hunter-seeker is poorly fit to face down with Riot, much less his friends _and_ the rovers."

"An asset poorly used then?"

"Perhaps, but at least it has given us one new advantage. The element of surprise from within the Rovers' own walls. If we are lucky, the hunter-seeker will recognize this, and not take any action. If not, then so be it."

"I understand,"

"Zig. I have been talking with General Parvo of late, and he had revealed something of great value to me. He has a…memory card of some odd sort that contains the coordinates to the Rover Base's exact location. I'm sending you to retrieve this from him, and I'm sending you with only two companions this time. As cheap as cano-mutants are to produce, they grow to be an annoying hole in my wallet."

"Who is to come with me?"  
"I'm letting you hold on to the control for Anemos. She'll be useful should you need to…convince Parvo to lend us the disk. I'm also giving you Psycho. He's the best we have right now, and he has a history with Riot, if you recall."

Zig laughed at the memory, and gave a salute. "The disk is all but yours, sir!" Anemos gave a slight whimper.

.

I stood outside of Captain's room. He was my oldest friend, and I couldn't bare the thought of him dead. Be that as it may, he was dieing. We all knew it, but I couldn't accept it. I didn't cry though, I had too much on my mind to spare time for something so pointless. Zig had escaped with Anemos, and he was going to be back. He wouldn't stand for a defeat.

Inside the small room, Captian was telling everyone the full story of the labs, from start to done. I could barely hear his voice through the wall.

"_Years ago, there was a professor who was the one to invent the transdogmafier. He was a genius, and his colleagues were all oblivious to that. They thought he was insane. Well, something happened in his private lab, and the entire thing exploded. As far as I know, he was killed in that explosion. One way or the other, the transdogmafier that he had at the time wasn't completely destroyed. Cyrus, a young, enthusiastic man found the plans to this transdogmafier. It was years before he actually looked at those plans, but he saw potential in them._

_He already had a name in the black market then, but he was suddenly a smack-hit when he began producing cano-mutants at low cost. They were weak and stupid, however, so Cyrus saw need to begin producing newer and better models. Parvo became the major source of income and Cyrus's business in genetically enhancing his creatures exploded. It was kept secrete though._

_This time, there was going to be no mistake. Producing half-effort cano-mutants almost destroyed Cyrus right then and there. This time, they'd be real soldiers. His inspiration for the new creation didn't come until the Road Rovers appeared on scene. Small, smart cano-mutants that could talk, fight and even function independently. This was going to be the new face of Cyrus._

_Under the name Kennel Master, Cyrus began producing small numbers of these new weapons, titles HUNS. This branch was widely recognized as a failure, and the small number of experiments that were produced became lab rats for new ideas. They'd later be known as Hunter-Seekers when they proved to be effective assassins, capable of self-preservation and hunting down targets on their own._

_Off of the HUNS branch came several more, only two of which produced results. The KOOY and BRAW branched were the greatest of the great, and were given genetic enhancement as well as strict combat training. This made them from soldiers to weapons. That was to this day, when the KOOY branch has taken the lead over BRAW for their adaptability. With the research on the KOOY almost complete, the labs are almost ready to go into a full-rate production of super soldiers."_

There was much more to that story, but none of us knew it due to routine memory washings. Captain went on to tell the Rovers about the collars.

"_They're called Free Will Suppressors, or F.W.S. they're put on the more inquisitive experiments, as well as those who are more powerful. When Riot told you he was a remote control, he was spot on. So long as you wear the bracelet that goes to the collar, you simply have to speak a command, and he'll have _no_ possible way of refusing. You could even tell him to kill his own sister, and he'd do it."_

"_You mean to tell me he has a sister?" _someone asked.

My heart turned into a tight knot of tension as I choked back tears. _"Well…he…"_

"_You can't honestly stand there and tell me that he'd kill his own sister, collar or not!" someone else challenged._

"_You can force him to do anything while he is wearing that damn collar! The people back at the lab had to prove it to him by doing just that!" Captain yelled._

"_Doing what? They put on a collar?"_

"_No! They had him kill his sister!"_

My eyes clouded, and my stomach churned. I remembered her face. It was the one memory the people in the lab wouldn't let me forget. Her cold eyes, face wet with tears. Oh, the Kennel Master had had a great time with that one. He still laughed about it, just to put insult to injury. I shook with rage. I was going to kill him, him and everything he held dear! My shoulders felt as though they were made of stone, and my fist clenched so tight that they were drawing blood. I couldn't bear to hear the rest of what Captain had to say. I stormed into the common room, and flopped down onto one of the couches, fuming with a mixture of emotion.

Though I wasn't aware of a word of it, the conversation in that room continued.

"So, I have a question." Hunter said a bit hesitantly.

"Be what?" Bernard asked.

"Well, uh. When we were picking you guys up, uh, Riot didn't look like he should have." Bernard and Captain both grew tense. "I mean, we were high up there, but he didn't look human at all."

"So what is inquiry?" Bernard asked.

"What's up with that, I guess is my question."

"You were high up, that's all." Captain said, but Bernard hesitated a moment longer. Before speaking.

"Is not our place to be telling." He said. They sat in silence before Colleen got to work.

"Alroit. Nough' standing around, you're not gettin' any better, and all this talk could bloody well kill you."

Captain nodded as if to say _better that than bleeding out._ You see, everyone knew he was going to die. Captain was just one of those guys you don't cry over, though. It wasn't that you have any ill-feelings toward him, it's just that he almost seems content with death, and that makes it easy to handle.

**Section 2** – Young Swordsman

We all left the room, silent, and with a certain sense of depression in all of us. Most of us had determined that it wasn't likely for Captain to survive much longer than a day or two, but we kept it to ourselves. I looked to the right, just after the door, and noticed Riot standing against the wall. I wanted to talk to him, but I felt it might not be my place to do so. I just nodded at him as I walked by.

Everyone headed to their rooms, mainly to gather their thoughts back together after the story Captain had just told us. I was going to do the same thing, but differently. I headed to the atrium and lay down in the middle of the sunlit room. The sun, for me, does wonders for my mind. Right now, I was using the light to help me mentally digest what I had just heard. I got into a comfortable position and closed my eyes, not to sleep, but to meditate. I soon became more in tune to my surroundings; the sounds, the movement, and most importantly, my deepest thoughts. I focused them on comparing Captain's story to what little I knew about my own. Parvo's HTC project, for what I figured, was probably not exactly the same as Cyrus' KOOY project, but I'm sure there were a good amount of similarities. I had kept up this train of thought until a small sound wave, barely audible, hit my eardrum. My brain translated the sound and identified it as movement from a living thing...

Blake and Kylie were in their room, contemplating what they had just heard. It was hard to hear that, and heart-wrenching, to say the least. Kylie started replacing the adhesive side of the voice disguiser, and Blake began polishing off his rifle. "You know," began Blake, wanting to break the silence, "I'm starting to wish we had more than one EMP charge with us... it'd be pretty easy to disable the collars with one of those, or better yet, disable the source that controls them..."

"I quite agree," replied Kylie, who had begun to put on a new layer of adhesive paper to the back of the voice disguiser. "But, I don't think they're indestructible. I mean, I don't know of anything that is, do you?"

"Well, diamond is almost indestructible, but somehow they've been cut into intricate shapes, so I guess not."

Kylie chuckled. "And they say that diamonds are forever..."

Blake smiled. "Apparently whoever said that didn't realize -"

He was cut short by a sound in the distance. Both Blake and Kylie's ears pricked up. Kylie quickly put on her voice disguiser as Blake stood up. "What was that...?" Kylie asked hesitantly in her disguised voice. "Whatever it was..." said Blake, reaching for his armor, "it sounded out of place here..."

Kylie instinctively got up and put on her armor. "I'll check it out," she said as she adjusted the strap on her helmet. Blake picked up and held out her rifle to her. "Be careful, OK?" Kylie smiled and took her rifle. "I always am," she concluded, smiling at Blake. With that, she opened the door just enough to poke her head out. Seeing nothing, she crept out of the room, rifle at the ready. Blake smiled at her courage and closed the door quietly. He took the liberty to put his own armor on in case things got ugly.

Kylie was soon met with Jack, the other all-black German shepherd of the strike team. They silently nodded at each other and began creeping along silently, side by side, at the same pace. It was common procedure for the strike team to send out what they called their "Stealth experts," who currently were the black German shepherds Kylie and Jack, if the team felt there was an intrusion, so the intruder wouldn't notice the investigation so easily. Jack, who shared a room with Gordon, had noticed the noise as well and had gone out to investigate. Jack was glad that he wasn't alone on this one, so when he saw Kyle's face helped him keep his courage up. They detected a soft, but high-pitched sound of something hitting the ground. They could tell it was coming from the hangar. Kylie and Jack raised their rifles and moved quietly in the direction of the hangar. They reached the large central room that contained the beginnings of corridors to almost anywhere in the building. The widest corridor, the shape of which was a large rectangle wide enough to fit five humanoid beings standing side-by-side, led to the hangar. Kylie and Jack scanned the central room, and seeing nobody, turned their attention towards the hangar. They crept down the corridor, looking through the sights of their rifles.

Having heard the footsteps of two of the strike team members, and the movements of the intruder from the atrium, I got to my feet. The door to the atrium was already ajar, just as I'd left it, so I was able to sneak out of the atrium with minimal noise. It was still daylight, so I figured that whoever this intruder was either really stupid, or really smart... One would think that since everyone's sleeping at night, the guard would not be as strong. But then again, we all were pretty sure that nobody was stupid enough to intrude during broad daylight... Either way, our security was on full alert anyway since the break-in of Parvo's forces not too long ago, so I was certain our security had not let up in the very least. I had already checked it a few hours ago, anyway. I crept towards where I heard the noise coming from in the most silent walk I could manage, which was also painstakingly slow. I managed to see the figures of the two strike team members, who I realized were Kylie and Jack, since they were both black German Shepherds, heading towards the door in a crouch walk, clearly ready to fire at any second. I took their hint and drew out my bow and knocked an arrow.

Kylie and Jack reached the end of the corridor, and seeing nobody directly in front of the corridor, they put their backs to the wall, ready to peer around their respective corners. They kept eye contact with each other for a moment. Jack nodded, then Kylie nodded in response. They instantly peered their heads around their corners, holding their rifles in the direction they were facing. Jack, who was looking to the left of the corridor, saw nothing. Kylie, looking to the right of the corridor, saw some dents and some damage on the Sky Rover. Jack looked back to Kylie and Kylie motioned for him to follow her. Jack did so, and they crept towards the damaged area of the Sky Rover. They looked at it as they got close enough. Kylie looked to Jack, who was better at recognizing what caused what kind of damage to metal. "Looks like something done by someone's bare hands..." he mouthed to Kylie, to avoid the intruder detecting them. They were both expert lip readers, which contributed to their classification as "Stealth Experts." Suddenly, Jack heard something land behind him. Kylie looked to him and saw what was behind him. Probably the ugliest thing she'd seen since the last time she saw one of Parvo's cano-mutants. She didn't think about it too much, because she instantly raised her rifle and fired over Jack's shoulder. Jack ducked and covered his head. The blaster seemed to have an effect on the creature, but apparently it wasn't fatal. Jack, who realized that when he didn't hear the creature fall to the ground, grabbed his rifle and swung the butt of it into the creature. It would've knocked the wind out of most anything else, but it wasn't that good of an idea. The creature grabbed the end of the rifle, and since Jack was a bit slow in his reaction time because of the shock at how durable this thing was, the creature managed to throw Jack against the wall. Jack slumped to the ground, unconscious. Kylie backed up, then fired a few rounds into the creature and ran, calling out for help.

I heard Kylie's call for help, and quickly responded. I ran to the nearest alarm trigger, broke the glass, and hit the switch. The same alarm that went off when the intrusion happened sounded throughout all of HQ. Knowing that everyone else was now on their way, I headed into the hangar to help Kylie. The first thing I saw was Jack's unconscious body. I checked his pulse, and found that it was still there, so I let him be until we could get him to medical care. I then continued to try to find Kylie and her attacker. I heard more blaster fire, so I headed in the direction of that. I heard the sounds of Hunter getting the Rovers into order and Gunther getting the rest of the strike team into order behind me. _Thank God for reinforcements..._ I thought. I kept heading toward the sounds of the blaster fire, until it suddenly stopped, and was replaced with sounds of hand-to-hand combat. I quickened my pace, and soon reached a corner, to find that Kylie was being held by the neck in a choking hold against the wall by this disgustingly deformed creature that slightly resembled a cano-mutant. I drew back my bow, and fired an arrow into it. The arrow hit the creature's shoulder, causing him to let go of Kylie, who slumped to the ground, somewhat conscious, but shaking. The creature turned towards me. I fired another arrow, hitting him square in the middle of the chest. The creature pulled it out and snapped it in one hand. I got out another arrow, and drew back the bow as far as I could pull it without breaking it. "Eat this!" I cried out, with my ears back in fury as I let the arrow fly. I realized that this creature was not the slow brute I thought it was originally. The creature managed to dodge the arrow enough so that it only grazed him. I put away my bow and drew my swords. The creature spoke something that I couldn't understand, and just as I thought I was about to engage in epic combat, the voice belonging to Blitz yelled from behind me, "Kurt, drop!" I didn't want to do that to allow the creature an opportunity to kick my head, but I saw an opening next to me, so I jumped and rolled off to the side, which did pretty much the same thing. A massive barrage of blaster fire came from that direction, all shots hitting their target. I heard a thud, and then heard Gunther's voice, "At ease, men." I got up and walked out of my cover. "You all right?" Colleen's voice asked me. "I'm fine," I said. I looked to Kylie, who was still breathing, but clearly shaken. "You all right, Kyle?" I asked, calling her by her male alter-ego's name in case anyone could hear me. "I'm... I'm fine..." she said, breathing heavily. "Just shocked at how much that thing could take..." I nodded, and put a hand under her shoulder. "Can you walk?" I asked. "Yeah, just help me up, first..." I nodded, and put both arms under her shoulders, and lifted her up. My back was to the others, so I took the small liberty of giving her a little lick on the side of her muzzle. She blushed a bit, but smiled. "Thanks..." she whispered, "heh... kinda feel a bit better now..." I smiled and ruffled the fur on her head. "We're all right over here!" I called to the others as I turned around to the rest of them, stepping to the side so they could see that Kyle could walk. "How's Jack?" "Knocked out," answered Gordon, "but he'll live." I nodded. I looked in the crowd and noticed that Riot and his friend Bernard were there. "Hey, Riot, Bernard, is this one of those brute hunter guys you were talking about?" I asked him.

**Section 3** – S.C. Wolfe

When I first heard the screeching noises from down the hall, I didn't even consider a hunter-seeker. Standing there over the body of a hunter-seeker was a less-than-pleasant wake-up. "Yes. Is hunter-seeker." Bernard said looking at the twisted form on the floor.

I held my breath as I glared at the creature. We had been right about the Rovers being unprepared for the hunter-seekers. There was one easy way to tell for sure. I looked to the Rovers.

"Quick quiz," I said as a loosened my posture, "How many of you would guess that it's still alive?"

The Rovers' attention snapped to the hunter-seeker, which suddenly got to its feet. I took time to see f I could ID it. Every hunter seeker had a name based on its major ability. I didn't know this one, but Bernard was likely to. The Rovers were all in some form of disarray, except for Kurt, who already had put his swords away and drawn his bow. Bernard stepped forward between Kurt and me. "Name is Regenerate, I believe."

Kurt raised an eyebrow, and fixed his stance slightly so that he could look at Bernard. "It means he heals from flesh wounds." I explained. Kurt nodded, and returned to his previous stance. The rovers had recovered, and were spreading out into defensive positions.

"Alright Rovers, lets get this thing out of here," Hunter said.

The hunter-seeker watched our every move, but fixed its attention on Bernard and me. It made two grunting noises, and shook its shoulder where Kurt had hit it with an arrow. It made a sickening grueling laugh, and suddenly charged right at us. Bernard jumped forward, and Kurt and I were quick to follow. Any rover with a weapon that could shoot was doing so. Bernard meat the hunter-seeker, and put down a solid punch to its gut.

"Bernard, move!" I yelled. I drew a knife I had taken from the kitchen and Kurt used his swords. Together, we both drove our blades into the hunter-seeker's chest. You can't ever tell where the heart in those things is, but you can guess. One of the three blades hit home, because the hunter-seeker screeched and fell lifeless to the ground. I stood up, and realized that everyone was looking at the kitchen knife in my hand.

I shrugged. "Old habits, and all." I said as I dropped the knife. Everyone changed our attention to the dead hunter-seeker.

"Was not made for close-corner fights. Must have followed us from desert. Is where he was made to fight." Bernard said as he studied the twisted form on the floor.

Kurt shifted uneasily on his feet, and Blitz's gaze was fixed on me. I didn't fully blame them, as I had as of yet to even give them reason to trust me, but I didn't appreciate the lack of opportunity. We broke up after that while Bernard disposed of the body.

I simply sat on the couch. The thoughts and memories of hunter-seekers reminded me of three people. The Kennel Master, my sister, and more over, Psycho.

His name was Psycho and it was a name well fitted. When the residents of the lab were first trying to find a name to know the hunter-seeker by, they almost settled on Chaos because of his extremely violent nature and the seemingly random powers that he had. His laugh could be heard even through the high-security door that sealed him in his prison, and those who were forced to hear it for extended amount of time notoriously lost their sanity. Very few recovered afterward, and those who did were haunted by laughter in their dreams. Many said that it was an ability, and not very many people argued. Psycho received his name from the way he fought. Laughing and crying, both at once, it was like watching someone fight in fast-forward.

His most commonly used ability was his "cold fire." Fire licked his arm, but never moved past his shoulder. Heat waves curled into the air above his head, but despite this a thick, white steam fell to the earth below. When it hit the ground, the frost froze everything it touched. At any time, he could throw gobs of the frozen white steam or balls of fire in any direction. When they hit any surface at all, it was either instantly frozen or made into a fine cinder. When taking no action, Psycho's eyes glowed red on the left, and blue on the right, and changed color accordingly when he used either fire or ice. It was the only warning you'd get.

Riot had a personal score to settle with Psycho, and hated him almost as much as Cyrus. Almost. The master appeared suddenly on a walkway viewing the room. "Ah, there you are Riot. I've been looking for you."

I found my way to a private meeting room, per the Master's request. When I entered, Hunter and the Master were waiting for me. "Take a seat, buddy." Hunter said as he pulled a chair back. I looked at the seat, and half considered denying the offer. I preferred standing, but I didn't want to be impolite, so I sat.

"Now, we've already had this talk with Bernard, but we were told to expect a different reaction from you." That seemed to be directed toward Hunter, who tilted his head slightly. "Riot, I expect that I already know how you feel, but I want you to tell me something. How do you feel about all that has happened to you in the past few weeks?"

the question was more of a shock than you may believe. He was asking me to _open up_ to people whom I had only known for a few short days? I didn't even spill my feelings to Bernard! And what was this about them coming to Bernard and I separately? Still wanting to begin building a positive image among the Rovers, I swallowed my pride for a brief moment in time, and spoke.

"Honestly, I'm sick of it."

"Sick of it? What's 'it'?" Hunter asked

"I'm sick of running, sick of fighting these impossible battles, sick of wandering what will become of me after every waking day. I'm tired of trying to outrun a past that is hidden from my memory, and I'm especially sick of not having my memory!" I said, slumping in my chair slightly. I felt sick of talking, but I knew that this was going to help me, to one end or the other.

"Very good, Riot. Now then, how do you feel about Captain? I know this is very soon to be saying much, but he's dieing, Riot. We've done all we can, but we can't save him this time." The Master said.

"Captain isn't someone who'd appreciate people mourning for him. He's too…too…accepting. He knew he was going to die the moment we got into trouble out there, and he knows that he's going to die now, even if he hasn't been told."

Hunter got up, and walked out of the room via a back door I hadn't seen until that moment.

"Riot, I'm going to have to ask that you stop taking our kitchen knives. That's three that you've taken, and I dare say we don't want to use any of them now." the Master seemed to be half-joking, and I was tempted to see the humor in it.

We talked for some time after that, mostly about my memory, which went to only about three months back, and even that had large blank spaces in it. When the Master tried to bring up the subject of my sister, I refused to say anything other than I knew very little about her. When hunter reentered the room, he had a large box in his hand. He set it down on the table between us, and sat quietly as the Master spoke.

"Riot, for this last question, I do not expect an immediate answer. This is a big choice to make. Hunter, if you'd please…" Hunter nodded, and pushed the box my direction.

"Just like Christmas, except t isn't wrapped, right?" Hunter said with a smile.

"Christmas?" I cocked my head in confusion. A very canine-like habit.

"Never mind. Just open it."

I looked at the package for several moments before opening it. I didn't know what to say. Not about the package anyway. "What did Bernard say?" I asked. _That_ was what would determine my answer.

Everyone sat in the common room. The Rovers were munching on some masterpiece or another of Shag's (whom Bernard had as of yet to successfully speak to), while Kurt practiced his combat forms with Kyle. Bernard unconsciously ran his hands along his new body armor as he watched the Rovers and the strike team associate. This level of communication was forbidden back in the labs, so he wasn't all-sure of how to react. This was going to take some getting used to. _Speaking of which_. Bernard thought as the door to the common room opened slowly. Out stepped Riot in a well-fitted combat armor. Blue, bringing _some_ color to his eyes. Riot adjusted one of the protective plates on his shoulder, and looked up. "Well…" he said in a bit of a hushed tone, "How do I look?"

Bernard stood up to show riot that he was wearing the same armor. "Like much dollars." Bernard had been trying to catch some popular key phrases off of Exile, failing to realize the fatal flaw in that plan. The reaction to Riot among the Rovers was mixed. Blitz rolled his eyes, and sat back down on his couch, Exile studied the collar on Riot's neck with the same intensity as ever, Hunter and Colleen were already giving warm welcomes and the strike team remained generally neutral. Kurt seemed not to be able to decide how to react.

"Uh, Bernard." Riot said walking over to his friend.

"Dah?"

"We aren't allowed into the kitchen without supervision."


	5. On the Trail

Part 5

**Part 5**

**Section 1** – S.C. Wolfe

Psycho yanked violently at the thick collar on his neck as he walked a few steps behind Zig. Anemos remained quiet, and was generally ignoring her collar as best as she could. How did she do that? Psycho laughed, and was zapped by the F.W.S. he growled at it, and was zapped again. He laughed at the situation, and continued to do so until the zapper on his collar threatened to cook his skin.

"Awww. Ziggy, con't we sit fer a bit! Hah HA! My legs are getting tired you know? OW!" the collar shocked him violently. "Aint too nice of yeah." He murmured, and laughed again. His tail was limp, and jerked every time he was shocked. Every time this happened, he went into a spitting laugh that threatened to sent him to his knees.

Zig had been taking this annoying chit-chat the entire journey, and he was just about fed up with Psycho. He turned, and gripped Psycho's neck, and lifted the runt clear off the ground. "If you don't shut up, I'm going to use that collar to strangle you! So, shut up, and keep walking."

Psycho twisted like a fish in Zig's hands as he laughed and tried to get free of the grip both at once.

"Aww, c'mon, Ziggy! We're all having fun out here! I love Poland!" Zig lost his temper, and threw Psycho to the ground with all the might in that arm. Psycho made a crunching noise as his boned broke against the rock. By the time he began laughing, the bones were already healing.

"Can't do you much good, that. I don't break, Ziggy!" Psycho said as he sat like a dog despite his human-like form. His tail flicked with every other word, but occasionally skipped a beat. "Can't even bash my head in, though yer thinking bout it!" psycho sat quiet for a moment, then fell on his side with laughter. All this laughing, but he didn't actually find a single detail of this entire trip even slightly amusing.

"You are going to sit here, and not move a single muscle until I come back!" Zig spoke loud and clear so that both Psycho and the collar received the command. Psycho stuck his tong out of the side of him mouth, and gave a salute with his foot.

"Anything you say, boss!" he chuckled.

Zig turned and disappeared over a hill. Psycho scratched the back of his head with a foot, and leaned back against a tree. His hands found their way to the collar, and he began fiddling with the leather and gold device. There were micro chips all through out the thing, but it'd be little use trying to burn, freeze or damage them as there were too many, and they were insolated by a protective adhesive. The only other option was trying to fit it over his head, which was of little use. This was going to be a long day…

The walls of the small room reminded me a little too much of my old room in the lab, though this room was a considerably larger room than the old one. Also, there were no guards at the door, and the door itself wasn't securely bolted in by hydraulic locks. I sighed as I looked at the armor on my arms and body. I hadn't worn armor like this in quite a while, that suit in the desert as the lone exception. Hat had even happened to that old armor. Honestly, I preferred the look and feel of my old green armor, but this new suit did have its ups. For one, it allowed for more movement of my arms. The old suit had been built with durability and resilience to attack in mind, but the designers had forgotten to consider mobility as a crucial element.

I had as of yet to use this new armor in combat, but I doubted that'd happen any time soon. I'd already booked it from the Rovers, stolen their property, and carried a concealed weapon around their base with out permission. I had some ground to cover. On the subject of weapons, I had been granted permission to demonstrate my abilities in combat in the Rover's small combat arena, but I was unarmed. They already knew what I could do with a knife, but anyone can get a lucky shot off on an enemy who isn't being careful. During my stay in the lab, I had received six days of combat training a week. I could use almost anything I could get my hands on as a weapon, but my training emphasized the use of a boa staff, or a "combat rod" if you must think of it as such. As it turned out, the rovers had a small armory of sorts. In it were mostly blasters and odd looking bazookas, though there were also a number of "dark age" weapons. There was a pair of European long swords, extra bow strings, an extra bow, and loads of arrows. My guess was that this was Kurt's section of the room. Toward the back of the room were more familiar weapons. There were rods and some smaller armaments such as knives and combat daggers, though I got thumbs down on concealable weapons. I shrugged it off, and selected one of the wooden rods and a blue hilted sword. The blade of the sword reminded me of a katana, though the blade itself was straight.

The weapons were given to me. The staff could fold in on itself, and the sword had a scabbard at my waist. Very handy. Bernard had chosen only a large combat dagger, as his super-strength contested for the lack of weapons. My ability couldn't do that to any degree, but that would be my own little secrete for as long as possible.

I sat in the common room. It was quiet and empty feeling without the Rovers there. They'd all returned to their respective countries of origin, though Kurt and the strike team remained.

Bernard was doing well for himself, as he was already engaged in a game of cards with Kurt, Kyle and Blake. I had no idea where anyone else was, so I simply stood there, balancing on the ball of my foot. "You really should try finding yourself a hobby." Kyle said over his hand of cards. It wasn't a bad idea, but I didn't think they'd take combat practice as a good hobby.

"I wouldn't even know what to do." I admitted.

"Try something that you're good at, or something you like." He suggested.

"I don't even know that," I said as I switched feet.

"Eh, try the TV. See if something catches your eye." Blake said passively, giving me the feeling that I was no longer a part of that conversation. I turned to the black screen. I hadn't ever used one, but I had seen the guards use them, so I didn't need any lessons. It only took a few tries to get the basic commands for the thing by heart. It was watching those images on the screen that really made me realize how much I was missing out on in this world. I had no idea what any of those people were doing, and for many of the images, it actually took me several moments to register rather they were acting or not. It was rather depressing, actually, and as frustrating as it was, I devoted my self to learning as much as I could on the world I had been robbed of.

For a while, some of the others joined me, but either got bored with what was on, or else got tired of my inability to stay on one channel. Bernard didn't take as much of an interest in the TV as I did. He was more fascinated by a magic trick that Kurt showed him about how to make a playing card vanish. So, he Kurt and Kyle all vanished, leaving me in the room with Blake. We didn't speak at all. I was too fixed into what I was doing to even know or care what he was doing.

I jumped when the emergency alarm went off. Instantly, my thoughts turned to another intrusion, though by the calm movements of Blake, I assumed that this was some other kind of alarm. I followed Blake, who went to the meeting room. The Rovers were just stepping out of the transdogmafier.

"Like we always say in Russia, is back to be good!" Exile exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah. We're sure you say dat all the time!" Blitz said as he rolled his eyes.

"Cool it you two," Hunter said as he put himself in between them, "Save the butt kickin' for the bad guys." Blitz gave a sinister smile, and chomped his fangs.

"Yeah! Let the biting of many tooshies begin!" he said as he rubbed his hands together.

"Don't be weird boy." Exile said.

"Good evening Rovers." The Master said from his platform. We all turned, and greeted the Master. Everyone but me saluted. Nobody had told me that this was necessary, but then again, I had been fixed on the TV all day (which had given me quite the headache…Kyle was right, I needed to find a hobby…). "This will be better news for some of you than others, but operatives from a support station in northern Europe have located what they may believe to be one of Parvo's bases. Northern Poland, to be exact, in a small forest near the Baltic Sea. Now, we already know he had a base somewhere in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, but we're looking away from that for now. It is believed that Parvo may be at this newly discovered base, as several strange deliveries of unknown personnel have been made to the location. I'm sending you in to investigate. Gunther, it's your call rather you'd like to go or not. Riot and Bernard, I'm requesting that you be in the same vehicle as Exile so that he can have a look at those collars while you're on your way. Rovers, get out there, and stop Parvo."

"Yes, sir!" everyone said.

"Let's hit the skies, Rovers!" Hunter said. Everyone let out a short howl, except for Bernard and I, who had not flown a day in our lives that we were conscious for. This was gong to be unpleasant. Exile seemed to think otherwise, as he was packing every kind of tool imaginable. The part that got to me the most was the level of trust already instilled in Bernard and myself. I looked at Bernard, and shrugged. This was horrifying and exciting all in the same.

**Section 2** – Young Swordsman

I jumped into the Sky Rover with the Rovers except for Exile and the strike team except for Jack, who, despite having regained consciousness earlier that day, was still bruised up, and told us that he did not want to be a hindrance. I understood what he meant. I'd probably do the same thing if I was in his position. The door to the Sky Rover closed and Hunter had started the engine. "All systems go!" he called out.

"Cleared for takeoff!" Colleen exclaimed. Hunter nodded and got it out of the hangar, and into the sky. Kylie looked back to the base we were leaving. "Don't worry, Kyle," said Gordon, "Jack will be fine."

"You did what you could," added Gunther, "and nobody can blame you for that." Kylie smiled slightly. "'Ey, don't get all teary-eyed on us, Kyle!" said Colleen.

"I'm not, I'm not..." said Kyle, "just still a bit shaken by the creature that attacked us last night."

We all became quiet. We understood completely what she was talking about. We weren't entirely comfortable with this crazy, brute fighting style that the hunter-seeker had displayed. "I don't blame you," I said, trying to break the silence. "But it vas scaaary... how are ve going to fight even more of those?" Blitz asked in a scared voice.

"Simple," replied Gunther, "go for the head. Not even a regenerator like the guy last night can regrow brain cells. It's the same strategy we use to fight heavily armored enemies." The rest of the strike team nodded.

I broke the silence that ensued for a few minutes afterwards. "Hunter, what's our ETA?" I asked.

"About five hours, I think. It'll be about the same amount of time it took to get to Sicily," he said.

"Well," I suggested, "get comfortable, guys. Five hours in here can pass by _really_ slowly..." With that, I got to the nearest chair and sat down. Everyone else, including Hunter, who had put the Sky Rover in auto-pilot, sat down in the area near me, so we could all be together. The first question I remember hearing was someone asking if anyone knew what Poland was supposed to be like.

"It's cold, for one," Blake answered, "mostly flat land, and a lot of old structures." We looked at him.

"You've been there?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah," he answered, "Jack and I were dropped off there for a training exercise so we could practice detonating explosives in such a way as to not damage sensitive surroundings in some old buildings, but still destroy the target. We were there for a good amount of time... a few days, I think. But we didn't see much of the terrain, as we were mostly inside old buildings, trying to destroy small locks on doors without causing the entire building to collapse. Then we left after the training was over, and that was it." We all nodded.

"Well, we'll be around a bunch of those old buildings or near a city, so you may want to remember those skills," commented Hunter.

Blake laughed a bit. "Will do, Hunter, will do."

Throughout the remainder of the trip, we mostly played various card games, and conversed with each other. Blake and Kylie tried to avoid talking about Riot, as he apparently had gotten on their nerves with how out of it he was to his own likes and dislikes when Kyle suggested for him to get a hobby. It had, I admit, gotten on my nerves too. I mean, I'm sure it was because he had been raised since he was an embryo in the laboratories of that Cyrus guy, which is sad, I know, but I just can't relate, because I had at least lived an average life for 18 years before my memories go black for two months. I had the luxury, apparently, of having those 18 years to get to know my own likes and dislikes; something Riot never had. Somehow, the conversation got to Bernard, Riot's friend, and it got Hunter and Colleen wondering how they were doing with Exile. They went over to the front of the cabin to radio their craft, but Blitz, the strike team, and I stayed where we were. The conversation continued, and soon someone suggested starting up a card game, which we did. We played a few rounds of the game when Hunter and Colleen came back from up front. "Well, how are they doing?" Gunther inquired. _Let's hope Riot found himself a hobby..._ I thought to myself a bit jokingly. "Well," said Colleen, "they're doin' all right. Riot 'n Bernard 'ave a surprise for when we get there. They told us not to tell you, but I'm sure you'll like what it is!" She smiled. Gordon leaned over to Blake, Kylie, and me. "Let's hope they finally got those stupid collars off of them..." he whispered. "Ditto," I whispered back. "If nothing else," added Kyle, "it'll at least eliminate the chances of the enemy knowing where we are before we get there. I'll bet anything that there are GPS tracking dots built into those things." The four of us nodded in agreement. Those collars, in addition to the fact that they were a hindrance to Riot and Bernard, they were also an eyesore. Seeing those things removed would be a huge relief for all of us. "Keep your fingers crossed," suggested Blake. We all smiled and held up our crossed fingers for him.

**Section 3** – S.C. Wolfe

For a long time, I simply stared into space. I couldn't think, and I couldn't breathe. I had never known any other way of living. My fingers twitched, and it was almost uncomfortable not to have the ever-present collar on my neck. I was so used to it that it felt as though the heavy collar were still on my neck. Exile was celebrating his defeat of the full-proof collar, and Bernard was in a corner, violently chewing his to shreds. Those few minuets would remain some of my most outstanding for a very long time.

"_Let me see collarski," Exile said as he got out of his captain's chair. He walked over to Bernard, and reached out for the collar. When he touched it, it gave him a heavy jolt of electricity. He yelped, and sucked on his hand for a short moment. "Now is personal!!"_

_Foolishly or not, he began jabbing the collar with every tool he had in his kit. He even tried out what he said was a disrepair ray that came from his eyes._

_Bernard had been receiving an equal amount of punishment from the collars, and was fed up. "Cannot be taking any more! Is going to make cook of neck fur!"_

_Exile sighed, and looked at me. I winced, but made no motion of retreating from the oncoming pain. For what seemed like an eternity, Exile went at the collar with everything he had. What I don't think he understood was that "fool-proof" meant that the collar was fool-proof. My neck was red and blistering by the time he gave up. I had lost feeling in my arms and legs, but it was the lost hope that was hurting. Cyrus was a genius when it came to making impossible to solve problems._

_Exile squinted at the collar, and gave his screwdriver a heavy throw. He went back to the captain's chair mumbling something or another in Russian. I assumed I didn't want to know what he was saying. Bernard and I sat in silence. The controls for the collars were there, on one of the seats. Both of us stared at them, but neither of us could touch them. If we were to touch both collar and control, the two would release some kind of toxin or another, and we'd be done for pretty quick._

_I glared at the collar on Bernard's neck for a long time. My attention was broken when Exile suddenly appeared next to me. "What is these?" he asked offering me the controls._

"_Gha!" I yelped. "Keep those things away from me!"_

_Bernard saved me the trouble of explaining the controls to Exile. Exile stared at them for a long moment, and I have to admit I thought he was going to put them on. It was sickening. Instead, Exile dropped them on the floor. Both Bernard and I backed up, not wanting to be near the control. "I think I can fix them…" Exile said. Fix them? We wanted them broken! Exile stood up, and stomped on the control. He began pounding at the controls. When that had no effect, he went to work with his tools, minus the screwdriver (which had broken when he threw it). Left with no other option, Exile suddenly blasted the two controls with his disrepair vision. I didn't feel any different…and the collar was still there. Nothing happened. It was a good idea anyway._

_We all slumped down, and sighed with frustration. I scratched at my irritated neck, and gave the collar an aggressive yank. I looked at Bernard, and then to Exile. This was hopeless…and then it dawned on me._

_I had just yanked the collar…and it hadn't zapped me! Bernard and I locked eyes and neither of us moved for several minuets. The anticipation was killing Exile. "Did it work? Are Collars broken?"_

_I was the first on to reach for the collar. I put one hand on it, and then the other. Nothing. I began sliding it around. It had worked…the collars were off! Out of rage at the collar, and the anxiety to be free, I stretched the leather. I put all of my strength, and a great deal of Exile's into the motion, but eventually, the collar gave way. It ripped at the back of my neck, and sent micro-fine particles of machinery flying all over the cabin._

Bernard swung the collar around like most dogs would to with a favorite toy, while Exile danced around in delight. As for me, I took to carefully stowing it away. I hated it, and wanted to mimic Bernard's actions, but that collar was the Kennel Master's property, and I was obligated to give it back…

My trance wasn't broken for several hours. When it was, Exile was saying, "German border is in sight. Will be arriving in half hour!"

Bernard and I smiled at one another. It was the first time in a very long time that I had smiled. We invited Exile to join us on the ground. We weren't talking about anything or even doing anything. I can't speak for Bernard, though I myself suddenly took to liking the husky. He had just set me free from a life-long curse. _Oh yes, this new life may just work for me. _I thought as Exile came to sit with us.

**Section 4** - Young Swordsman

The Sky Rover landed a good distance away from the outskirts of Warsaw. It was around the area where our sources indicated that we'd find this fortress. Exile's ship landed next to us soon after. When we all exited the Sky Rover, we realized that Blake was right; it was _cold_ over in Poland! Well, not snowing cold, but for sure below the temperature most of us were used to. I was sure that Exile would not have any problem with it, since he was already accustomed to the blistering cold of Siberia. When he came out of his ship, he seemed to be fine with the weather. He seemed, as a matter of fact, pleased with something. Gordon, Kyle, Blake, and I looked at each other, crossing our fingers that it was for the reasons that we had hoped for on the way here. "You seem happy," noted Hunter, "what's happened?" he asked. Exile grinned. "I remove something..." he said, trailing off at the end, looking back through the doorway he just came out of. A collar, that we all recognized to be the ones that Riot and Bernard wore, came flying out. Bernard, free of the collar, came walking out after it. He picked up the collar and flung it like a Frisbee a _long_ distance away from where we were standing. Riot, who was still holding his collar in his hand, followed Bernard out. Most of us, I'm sure, heaved a sigh of relief. "Finally free, huh?" commented Gunther. Bernard smiled. "You know it!" he exclaimed. Riot, though glad that his collar was off, didn't seem to be as exuberant as Bernard. "Yeah, feels nice," added Riot, clearly not as excited. The rest of us raised an eyebrow for a second, but then shook it off. We figured that maybe he hadn't mentally digested it yet. A bit of an awkward silence followed for a few seconds, but fortunately Blitz jumped in and broke it. "Come! Let us destroy this fortress vith our energy from exsitement!" he declared. All of us, except maybe Riot, returned to our exuberant state when we first saw that the collars were off of us. Hunter immediately began to lead us towards the coordinates we were given, and we set off. I noticed that Riot stayed a bit close to Exile when we started moving. I didn't blame him, actually. I mean, Exile had just removed this huge psychological weight from him! I'd probably be doing the same thing as well.

We stopped a ways away from our destination; in the outskirts of the Polish port city of Gdańsk, the nearest major city to our destination. Not wanting a repeat of Sicily, it was far enough away so that any sensible guard patrols wouldn't see us, and close enough to a populated area so that even if the enemy did know we were there, they wouldn't dare attack us, as it would risk people finding out. I'm sure the last thing Parvo wanted was Poland's army (and probably the rest of Europe's armies as well), surrounding his base before he was ready. The forest the Master had told us about was in sight, so we at least knew the general direction where we were to be going. We planned on heading into the forest at night, and this time everyone was fitted with night vision goggles (except for Exile, who could do that already with his eyes) so we would be prepared.

We set up camp, which consisted of a camouflaged tent and some blankets to sleep on. It was getting dark, and most of the team was getting to sleep. While that was happening, Gunther, Hunter, Bernard, Riot, and I were gathered to try to get an idea of what we were up against. We still didn't trust Riot all that much, but he and Bernard were the only ones who seemed to have any idea of what we were up against. "So," began Gunther, "do you have any idea what the building may look like?"

"It's likely just one big rectangle that may have a courtyard in the middle," Riot answered. "It's also probably mostly underground, and surrounded by barbed wire fences," he added.

"What about the guard patrols?"

"Human guards, I would venture to say. Draws less attention, and would have people thinking it's a military base."

"As if it isn't one already..." I added.

Riot looked at me a little oddly. I discounted it and looked to the others.

"Once we get inside," added Bernard, "there will be hunter-seeker..."

"Oh that's just perfect..."

"...Unless you go through back door. There is always back door for emergencies only, and have nobody around."

"Perfect!" exclaimed Hunter.

Gunther and I nodded. "Sure is," I said. "Now we only have to worry about the outer defenses. I would think they know about that entryway unless they completely forgot about it..." I mused with some sarcasm at the end.

Riot looked at me with a "How stupid do you think they are?" kind of look. I held up my hands. "Hey, the bad guys in the past seem to usually be that stupid... just wanted to make sure..."

"They're not," stated Riot, rather coldly.

"Sorry I asked..." I said as I rolled my eyes, looking the other way.

Gunther decided to continue the topic at hand. "So, we'll just need to make sure we've got our wire-cutters handy, and watch for the guard patrols. Come, let's get some sleep so we can do this with all our strength tomorrow night."

We all nodded in agreement and we headed to our sleeping areas. Everyone except Colleen, who wanted her beauty sleep, and Gunther, who gets really irritable late at night if he hasn't slept, gathered together and told jokes, funny stories, and scary stories. Riot was there but he didn't seem too interested. Comedy probably wasn't his thing, or he couldn't remember what he considered funny or not. Around midnight, we called it a night and went off to sleep. Riot, I noticed, slept near Exile. Apparently Riot had really trusted Exile after the situation on Exile's ship when the collars were removed. I did also notice, however, that Riot was fiddling with his collar on his pile of blankets. _Oh God, please do __not__ take that with you!_ I thought. If Kylie was right, and that thing had a GPS tracking dot on it, we were as good as dead. Cyrus and Parvo could very likely have already known where we were! I decided to stay up and guard the campsite. I didn't want us all to be ambushed in our sleep. I drew my bow, knocked an arrow, and patrolled the area for the next five hours.

Around 4:40 AM, Gordon had probably heard my footsteps and woke up. "Kurt, what the heck are you doing up this late?" he whispered.

"I'm patrolling," I answered. "I don't want an ambush. Riot's still got his radio-controlled collar, and if that thing's got a tracking dot on it, I want to at least be prepared to wake up everyone else before the enemy is on top of us."

"You know," croaked an extremely sleepy Gordon, "we were kinda supposed to be doing that... but I guess when everyone who was supposed to be doing that saw that you were patrolling already, they didn't see the need to do it..."

"Well they'd better thank me in the morning," I said.

"Oh they will," Gordon assured me. "Every time someone sacrifices a day of sleep and allows the others some more sleep, they really appreciate that."

"I'll bet they do..." I commented. "Well, head back to slee..."

I was cut off by a noise in the distance. The sound of someone's foot crumbling a small rock. I flipped on my night vision goggles and looked into the distance. Almost immediately, I saw a humanoid shape. I raised my bow and arrow and aimed it in the direction of the shape. "Gordon," I whispered, "on your guard, there's someone out there."

"Got it," he whispered back. I could hear him getting his rifle up and into his arms. "What do you see?" he asked me.

"Human... seems to be milling around, but might still be dangerous."

"Armed?"

"I think so. He's got something in his hands..."

I heard Gordon flip a switch on his goggles, which told me he now had night vision as well. "A scout!" he exclaimed, but still in a whisper. "Either this is a really long-range routine patrol, or Cyrus and Parvo already know that we're here!"

"Well I just _can't _imagine how they know our position..." I sarcastically replied, eying Riot.

"It would be best to let him leave if he doesn't know our position... the scout, I mean, so whoever sent him out doesn't suspect anything if the scout doesn't return," Gordon explained, "but then again, he could leave with all information on our position."

"Take him out?" I inquired.

"There probably isn't a better option."

I nodded, and took the cue to draw back and fire. The one thing I love about bows and arrows, is that they're almost completely silent. More so than any silenced firearm. The scout never knew what hit him, as a result. He fell to the ground without so much as a gasp. Wanting to make sure he wasn't going to get up, Gordon headed over to the fallen scout. He bent over to check if the guy was still breathing. After a few seconds, Gordon stood up and walked back. "Target neutralized..." he said in a bit of a joking manner. I grinned at the joke. "I'm serious, man, you've got some mad skills with that thing," he said to me. I smiled at the compliment. "Thanks, Gordon," I said.

"Here, how about I patrol the rest of the night for you?" he offered.

"I'm down with that..." I said. I promptly fell to the ground into R.E.M sleep. I'm pretty sure that I slept a lot longer than anyone else did that night, as I woke up the next day around noon. Gordon and I didn't make much of a big deal about the scout the previous night. I mean, sure we had just possibly saved our campsite location from being compromised, but we figured, as Exile had put it when I first joined the Rovers, "it was duty."


	6. Trouble in Poland

**Part 6**

**Section 1** – S.C. Wolfe

I looked at the collar in my hand all night long. I couldn't believe it was actually off! I was half hoping that I'd see Cyrus at this base of Parvo's, but I knew it was an empty wish. Cyrus was well dug-in at some remote location or another in the desert.

Poland. It was cold here against my skin, making me half consider changing form, but nobody here knew about that yet. They didn't know very much about me at all really. I considered telling them all about myself, but that would require me breaking my own personal number one rule; what they don't know can't hurt me.

I didn't sleep very much or very well. Kurt began patrolling at about twelve that night. What was he so scared of? I didn't know, and I didn't care. My mind was still adjusting to the fact that this base that we were to attack was in the forest. This was the terrain I had trained for. Was it coincidence? I could only hope, because the alternative was that they had been anticipating my actions for a long time, and if that was the case we were walking into a trap.

I tried not to think about it too much. The possibility seemed too unrealistic. When Kurt found a scout in the early hours of the morning, I almost believed my own superstition. I didn't move, though. The collar had begun giving out tiny electric charges. It was coming back online. That didn't mean anything now, seeing as nobody was wearing it, but it was a bad sign. If it had any kind of a tracking signal, we were going to be found.

Shortly after the scout was found, Kurt finally went to sleep. He was replaced by one of the strike team members, and so went the night. By the time the light of the sun was fully out, I had gotten maybe a full hour of sleep at most.

My arms ached horribly and my legs and back were stiff as I stood up. I hadn't ever slept that poorly before. Bernard seemed to have had much the same experience. I wondered briefly if this was because of the collars, but dismissed the idea on spot. Stretching that morning was a less than pleasant experience. Every one of my joints popped, and some of my muscles seemed to be made of stone.

Hunter went around with morning rations, and we all ate. The rations were quite tasty, compared to the stuff that the labs handed out on a daily basis. Some of the Rovers sparked conversation, much of it sparking laughter. I didn't understand their comedy, however, so not much of it was too enjoyable for me.

Kurt didn't wake up until later that day. He hopped right into the conversation, which I found honestly annoying. No longer listening to the conversation at hand, I began rethinking my perspective on Kurt. He was a lot like me, actually…as far as I could tell. Maybe that was why we didn't get along so well? I knew for a fact that I had a hard time accepting the fact that there were people out there who were stronger than me. I didn't know rather Kurt was like this or not. All I knew was that he was stronger than me in several ways, equal in others. Was I stronger in any ways? The only that I could think of was that I could "transdogmafie" at a moments notice. He required a transdogmafier.

More wanting to be a part of the conversation than anything, I asked, "So how do we plan on entering this base? Back door at night, I got that, but you'll need a plan once you're inside." Everyone stopped and glared at me. Not a very comfortable situation, incase you're wondering.

"Well, seeing as we don't know what the floor plans are like, I'm thinking that we'll just have to make it up as we go," Kurt said rather harshly.

_What's his problem?_I wondered. Anyway, he had a point, but all bases and labs are the same in concept. "There's going to be a main room, kind of like a heart, that will connect to the rest of the building, like veins and arteries. This Parvo guy is going to be one of two places. Either the head of the operation, or else in where ever they're producing weapons and combat training."

"And in your bodily analogy, where would those be?" Kurt asked almost cruelly.

"The head and the…" I cringed. "We should focus on the head. A control room most likely toward the center of the base."

The Rovers glanced at one another, and then to me. This would take some getting used to.

Psycho let go of his grip. He had been pulling and yanking at the collar all night. The electric shock had burned away his fur, and boiled his skin. He had stretched it out almost to the point of breaking. Even with all of the fire and ice applied, it was quite resilient. Psycho was determined, however. He put one last hard pull into the collar. Twenty four hours of extreme heat and cold, not to mention hundreds of pounds of pressure every time he yanked it and the collar finally came off. As the belt snapped, electric bolts shot out into the air, burning black lines on the dirt and rock under foot. Psycho looked for a long time at the collar, and dropped it to the ground.

Shaking as though in a seizure, he began pacing toward the giant concrete building in the distance. Not really knowing why, or not even caring for that reason, he was going to find those ordinance. Parvo had a disk of some kind with this information, so that was the target. Once he had those, Psycho was going to find Zig and have a little fun. He laughed wildly, and quickened his pace. Already, his burns had healed and his fur was growing back.

_Oh, yes_ he thought, _this will be very fun! _He let out a ground shaking growl, which turned abruptly into another laugh. _Oh yes. Very fun._

**Section 2**-- Young Swordsman

We began our long trek into the forest of northern Poland soon after we finished eating. I was still unnerved at how antisocial Riot was, and half convinced that he may betray our position by still having the collar in his possession. I didn't want to trust him, but we didn't have another choice. I just hoped that Exile's "un-fixing" of the collars took care of any GPS tracking on those things. We walked in two parallel lines, Hunter leading the Rovers, and Gunther leading the strike team. Riot, Bernard, and I took up the space in between the lines. If there were snipers around here, we were sure they'd want to take us out, and Riot and Bernard were the most invaluable members of this operation. They knew this enemy of ours inside and out, and without them, we were lost. I looked at Riot and gave him a suspicious look when he turned his head the other direction. This was promptly met with a slap to the face by Colleen. "Stop acting like an immature baby, will ya?" she demanded, pulling me to the outside of the Rovers' line, motioning to the others to keep going. "We've gotta trust 'im!" she told me in a harsh whisper, looking me straight in the eyes, and pressing my back against a tree, "And I don't think that doing what you just did, paired with you're a'itude back at camp, is gonna help that! We're all having a hard time trusting 'im, I know. But we don't have a choice! 'E may even be losing his trust in us!" Her tone of voice scared me a bit. I'd never heard her talk that seriously before, and the eye contact told me that she was dead serious. I nodded, feeling and looking like a frightened child who was just reprimanded by his mother, and probably also like a scared puppy as well.

After Colleen had finished, she loosened her grip on my shoulders. Her lecture forced me to realize that I was, in essence, still new to the team, and somewhat arrogant in my ways. I still leaned against the tree, allowing my mind to soak in what had just happened. I put a hand to my head, and noticed that my ears were folded back on my head in an extremely submissive gesture. I guess I probably did look like a scared puppy more than anything. Colleen stepped to the side and I saw someone I didn't even know was there; Kylie. At this time, I felt super embarrassed. She, who had a thing for me, just saw me scared out of my wits, which was, in fact, something I had not been in a long time. "Believe me," she said in her female voice, as she was holding her voice disguiser in her left hand, "you needed that." I looked at Colleen, "How long did you know about her voice disguiser?" I asked her, "Las' night, she told me about that, and also told me that this needed to be done…" I nodded, holding down my head shamefully. "I sure hope," said Kylie, "that you can redeem yourself from that behavior of yours by putting full trust into Riot for this operation." This was refreshing. I still took Colleen's words to heart, but I stood at attention, "I shall," I said. She smiled. "Come on," she said, reattaching her voice disguiser, "let's catch up to the others."

Colleen, Kylie, and I hurried up to catch up with the others. They decided to camp out a bit to wait for us, despite Colleen telling them to carry on without us. We made it clear that what held us up was behind us, and something we didn't need, nor want, to talk about with the others. Blake probably already knew about it, but the rest didn't need to know about it. We needed to keep our focus on the task at hand. "Let's move, guys!" commanded Hunter to the rest. We quickly reassembled our position, except Riot, who stuck close to Exile, but still pretty much in the center of the formation. Bernard tried to find out what happened, but I only hinted at it, at most. Blitz looked at me, trying to read my thoughts or something, but keeping his tough guy image. He sure wanted to give me the message that he was tougher than me, and that he would have been more resilient to Colleen's force than I was. I smirked at it. I knew better than to believe _that!_

After about a half hour of marching in complete silence, according to Hunter's GPS system, we were within a mile of our target. We soon found out for sure that it was true when we saw a barbed wire fence blocking our way. There was a quadruple-padlocked door on the fence, on which was a sign that read:

THIS IS A SECURE MILITARY TESTING AREA.

ALL TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT WITHOUT WARNING.

"I am not afraid of sign!" proclaimed Blitz, who stepped in front of all of us, extended his claws and sliced through the padlocks. As soon as they fell to the ground, the door creaked open. Well, once that happened, what the sign was saying was finally absorbed by his mind. "Uh… ladies first…" he said to Colleen with a nervous grin. Colleen glared at him a bit, but took Hunter's hand and walked in with him. It was about that time when I was fully clued in to their interest in one another. Anyway, so when they got about three or five feet beyond the gate, nothing really happened. Maybe this Parvo guy was full of hot air when he wrote that sign. Clearly there were no snipers in the area. I looked at Riot. "So," I said to him a lot more calmly, "since they were clearly faking about the getting shot without warning thing so far, how should we go about getting to the actual building?" I asked him.

**Section 3** – S.C. Wolfe

I had to wonder why we had been walking in such an exposed position. It made me cringe every time we passed through a gap in the trees. The painted sign on the barbed wire fence was no comfort. As we walked, I listened for any signs of movement. This place was very poorly patrolled. It was a lucky break for us, because the giant white rug that the rovers had brought with us kept on whimpering. "C'mon, Shag! Keep it down!" Hunter said, feebly trying to silence the coward. I could stand a lot of personalities, but a coward was a person I had a hard time getting along with.

That brought to question why I didn't seem to get along with Kurt. My immediate conclusion was that we were too alike, and I left it at that. For now, there were more important things to think about. For example, we were now in full view of the cement structure. We could see them, then they could see us. We took to a more fitting formation, and continued until we reached an inner defensive wall. We found a small side door, and the strike team moved into position. Kyle strapped the hinges and the handle with small explosive charges.

The charges were shockingly silent, yet they still did their job. The door came flying off its hinges, and would have made a great deal of commotion were it not for Bernard. He caught the metal door, and lay it quietly down with some assistance from Blitz. We slipped through undetected.

Inside was a large field, and at the end of the hundred yard field was a small cement structure. I pointed to the building. "That's our ticket in. there's the main door that you can see from here, but there should also be a hidden fire exit on the other side."

Kurt nodded, if not a bit awkwardly, and looked to Hunter. Hunter seemed oddly…still.

"Does anyone else smell that?" he asked. All of the group turned their snouts into the air. I simply waited.

"No, Huntie. I don't smell anythin', why?" Colleen asked.

"That's exactly the problem," Hunter said

"I can't smell anything either. Is my doggie nose broken?? If we can't smell anything, is anything even out there?" Exile asked shrinking a little.

Gunther thought for a second. "Back in World War II, the French underground used a chemical to deaden dog noses in order to smuggle men and supplies. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what that building over there is for." He pointed to a smaller building with the bio-hazard symbol on it.

"Good point. Parvo knows who he can expect, so we can safely figure he's prepared for us." I said plainly. Kurt gave a half-impressed shrug.

"I think that leaves us with Riot's nose then." It looked as though he were going to say something else, but Colleen cleared her throat, and Kurt let the rest trail off. "Either way," he said after a silent pause, "we have to get to that first structure."

We all agreed. "Watch for snipers." Kyle said.

_That was odd. _I thought as we began to make our way across the opening. _It almost looked as though he was talking to Kurt. Jeeze. I'm jumpy toward that guy._

Even so, it was odd. Maybe they were just good friends? That was it. Besides, what did I know? I had hardly even gotten to know my new comrades back at base. We made it to the structure without incident, so we made our way around the side of the building.

"Who…look a' that!" Colleen said. The side of the cement structure was completely blackened, as though burned and had a hole in its center about three feet in diameter. "Incre'ible!"

"Weapon malfunction?" Gunther suggested.

"We'd be wise to hope so." I muttered. I had seen the like before.

"Makes it easier to get inside." Hunter said as he approached the door.

_At least he's always an optimist._

Carefully, we stepped through the hole. The charred edges were slightly warm, I noticed. Once we got in, we faced an elevator. "This is one of the veins, most likely right into the heart." I said. "Once we're inside, we can expect no less than five different tunnels."

We sat in silence as the elevator dropped into the darkness of the base. The elevator was very large, to say the least. What were they producing here? The nut job who ran this operation was perhaps a little under-protective. That brought up a point. "So, I'm confused. Who's base is this. I've been assuming it was Parvo's, but I don't know for sure."

"Honestly, Riot, we don't know either." Kurt said as he tested the string of his bow. "We're hoping for Parvo, but it could well be linked to Cyrus."

There was no more time to say anything as the elevator reached the bottom floor. As soon as the door was open, the strike team spilled out into covering positions. The hallway certainly reminded me of Cyrus's lab, though it was a tad darker. Everything here was solid metal, where as Cyrus preferred marble and alloys.

We were able to move quickly, as there was nobody there. The main corridor, just as predicted, had six separate passage ways. _So I was one off. Sue me._

Hunter broke us up into groups. I was to be with Kurt, Blitz and Kyle. However, one of the passages was blocked off with a blast-proof door, so the last group was divided accordingly, adding Bernard to our troop. "If anyone needs help, just radio in." Hunter said as he pushed Muzzle's cart next to Shag. A coward and a mentally deranged dog both on one team. How did the Rovers pull that off? Hunter tossed me a radio, inconveniently supposed to be worn like a collar.

"Sorry, but I have to pass." I said, subconsciously rubbing my neck. My nerves weren't used to not having the collar there, so it actually felt like it was still there. I hated that.

"Okay, everyone. Keep your eyes out for anything suspicious." Hunter reminded us.

The small group that I was with headed down the first tunnel. It was well-lit, but still seemed dark for some reason. The hallway seemed to have a hundred connecting passages to either side. I advised that we stuck to the main passage way. "It's far more likely to lead to something important," I explained.

"Fair enough," Kyle said. Something made me look at him for a moment. It wasn't something I could explain. He just didn't seem to fit, like he was out of place. It was only a moment though. Something distracted me. We all heard it. A loud clamoring noise. Kyle flipped off the safety on his rifle, and Kurt and I drew our swords. To myself, I made a note of how out of practice I was with blades. Bernard popped his knuckles, and said something in Russian to Exile, who laughed. Bernard could speak Russian?

We advanced at a silent double-time. There was an explosion, sending us to our feet. For a moment, I couldn't breathe through the smoke. It was a tiny explosion, but it had sent a storm of dust in every direction. We made it to the end of the hall, and were faced by a pair of double doors. It was…

"…a kitchen?" Exile questioned the scene. The stoves were running, and pans full of food sizzled, but there were no cooks. While Kurt radioed our small find, the rest of us spread out and began searching the large room. It was huge, actually.

"They could feed a base with a kitchen this size!" I said. Kyle looked at me in that funny way that just says, _uh…duh_.

"Nothing here, comrades." Bernard said inspecting one of the pans.

"Ah, but is smelling like dinner to me, yeah?" Exile said over a deep sniff of the entrée.

This situation was twisting my stomach. This screamed boobie-trap in more than one language. I saw that Kurt and Kyle shared my opinion.

"Let's spread out. There's multiple doors on the far walls that could open at any time." Kurt said.

The three of us made our way over. Kurt had re-drawn his bow. Realizing my lack of long-range weapons, I took a hand full of knives from a counter. "What is it with you and kitchen knives?" Kyle asked.

I paused a moment. "I honestly have no idea."

Kyle shrugged. I moved next to the door, and peered through one of the small circle windows. The room on the other side was some kind of a mess hall. It was completely empty. "I don't like how empty this place is." I noted.

"I have to agree with you. This place is _way_ too quiet." Kurt said. Kyle said something back, but I didn't hear it. Something caught my eye. Movement in the hall we had just come from. Not informing the others, I clambered back through the kitchen, and stood in the doorway. Exile and Bernard had moved on to join Kyle and Kurt. I watched for the movement. It was surreal. The entire hall seemed to be shifting, but there wasn't anything there? I tucked the knives into the belt of my armor, and drew the boa staff. The hall was large enough for me to use it effectively.

I slowly began making my way down. There were doors to either side of me, and with no descent distance-weapon, I was a sitting duck if the enemy pulled off the first shot. With an uneasy stomach, I checked through the window of the closest door to me. Black. Nothing, nobody…but then something happened that I didn't expect. A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the room. The blue eye flashed red. "Ah, crap." I jumped as hard as I could to the side. The wall behind me exploded in a brilliant red as a solid jet of fire made quick work of the cement and metal wall. A screeching laughter filled the air, like when someone enjoys a bad joke too much. Psycho. I growled, and realized that I wasn't supposed to growl as a human.

"Losing control, Riot?" Psycho took form as he stepped out of the shadow.

"Hardly." I said, growling again. The staff had been badly charred by Psycho's "cold fire," so I discarded it in exchange for the sword and one of the kitchen knives.

"Those won't help you and you know it, Riot."

"We'll have to see about that." Where were the others? Managing a glimpse into the kitchen, I noticed that they were gone. They must have moved on while I was making my way back into the hall. Psycho stood with an arch in his back, like an old man. He did this on his own will though. It gave his opponent the illusion of weakness and lack of flexibility. If there was anyone in the lab I knew all about, it was Psycho. This brought up a point. "Why are you here, Psycho? How did you get out of that freezer of a cell they lock you in?"

"Now you're just being cruel, Riot." Psycho said with a pout. "Ziggy brought me here, but I was never house trained, you know. He told me to 'sit', but I'm not quite used to 'stay'."

"Zig is here?"

"Yupper. 'E's lookin for some kind of a computer drive with some valuable info on it. The coordenance to your new home, I think. I was hoping to run into him, but this is a real treat. The one and only Riot, here instead." His eyes flashed blue, and I threw myself to the ground just as a blue light flashed over head. When the light struck the wall, it created a massive buildup of ice, sharp as a knife on its point.

I wasn't just going to stand here while he babbled on and took pocket shots at me. I jumped to my feet, and ran for Psycho. I let one of the knives fly, drew a second, and drove it into Psycho's arched back as I passed him. Psycho squirmed a bit, and turned to face me. "That don't work, Riot. We both know that." I began throwing the knives. They all landed in his exposed skin, and stuck out, making him look like some kind of porcupine. Psycho sighed, and jumped at me. He moved like a snake from a coil, and just as fast. His fists and claws landed several blows before I had time to react. I couldn't even block him fast enough. His motion was a blur in my eyes, and suddenly, Psycho landed both of his fists on my chest. I went flying backward and smashed into a wall. I couldn't breathe.

Psycho simply stared at Riot as he slumped against the wall. He laughed a little as the air came back to Riot, and the boy came around. Riot struggled to get up. He was pathetic in his human form, but he was afraid of his Cano-form. Psycho knew why, so he didn't blame Riot, but for some reason Psycho wanted to force Riot to change. Riot was quite the adversary when he was in his cano-form, and had even almost killed Psycho once. Psycho walked over to Riot, lifted the boy up by his hair, and sent him across the hall with a hard kick to the back.

Riot yelled as he flew through the air. He landed with a hard thud. "Riot, my friend, you can fight better than this!" Psycho said in a forced British accent.

Riot began to breathe heavily, and clenched his fists. Psycho smiled, but also winced. This was about to get a little more difficult.

For a moment, I was surrounded in a thick smoke. I felt myself changing, I felt stronger, I could hear and see better. I also felt a good deal warmer. The smoke hadn't even settled before I was standing. The armor that I was wearing had torn in places, but I was still descent.

My ears filled with a deep growl from my thought, and my knuckles were white under the deep-brown fur that now covered them. For me, this was a horrifying thing, but exhilarating all the same. My tail flicked violently from side to side, and my ears were flat against my head. I opened my eyes, and glared at Psycho, who stood midway in a shadow. I popped my neck, and dropped the sword. Who needs blades when you have claws?

Psycho was nervous, but not an idiot. Rage filled me as I began walking toward him. "This is for _her!_" I said as I ran for Psycho.

Bernard ran in front of the group. "Riot?" he called. "Riot!" they'd made it all the way to the control room, where they'd meat up with Hunter's group. Exile had stayed behind with Shag, Muzzle and some scattered members of the strike team. Colleen was keeping pace with Hunter, and Kyle and Kurt took up the rear. In the distance, there was an explosion, and the lights flickered.

"Hurry comrades!" Bernard urged. Riot was his responsibility! How could he loose track of him? The doors to the kitchen tore off of their hinges with the force of Bernard's mass. The door on the other side was dented in an odd way. On the other side, everyone could hear roars and growls. Bernard stopped the group.

"What? What is it?" Kurt asked a tad impatiently. Bernard spared a moment to wonder why he and Riot didn't get along. They were quite alike.

"I know what is on other side of door." Bernard had to make this fast. "Riot has power, but was not my place to tell. He's going to be-"

Bernard didn't get to finish as a coyote came flying through the door. Psycho, Bernard realized. Psycho hit a refrigerator with such force, that it actually broke the top off.

"Riot!?" Hunter asked, looking at Psycho. Psycho twisted his head 180 degrees to look at the new comers. Kyle winced.

"No, comrade Hunter. That's Riot." Bernard said as Riot came storming threw the broken door. His black white and brown fur would have made most Bernese Mountain Dog breeders fume with envy. Riot's tail flipped back and forth in an uncharacteristic sign of agitation. He didn't even notice the others standing there as he approached Psycho, who hadn't taken his eyes off of the new group.

"The gang's all here." Psycho mused as he glared at Bernard.

I kicked my way through a pile of pots as I walked toward Psycho. His healing ability was already done fixing the damage I had just done, but I didn't care. More fun for me. Psycho stood up, and laughed. "Can't kill me like that either, Riot."

"Then I'll just have to keep on trying, won't I?" I said with another growl. I grabbed Psycho by the scruff of his neck, and threw him toward the stoves. Psycho caught himself on a rail, and landed on top of one of the stoves. "Now riot, that's no way to act in front of the guests!" Psycho said.

I cocked my head, confused. Bernard appeared in my peripheral, and I stopped cold. Hunter, Colleen, Kurt and Kyle were all there too. I was suddenly very aware of my form. Psycho took advantage of the moment, and his eyes flashed red. The two basketball-sized fire balls struck me square in the shoulder and in the chest, sending me spinning. I hit the wall, but kept my feet under me. The Rovers took up more appropriate positions, and joined the fight. Kurt with his bow, Kyle with his rifle, Hunter and Colleen with blasters, and Bernard with whatever he could lift (which was a lot). Psycho stood passively as his body was torn to shreds. His healing ability just kept patching him up.

Psycho jumped suddenly, sending Bernard and Hunter both flying right at me. He had moved too fast for me to even see how ha managed to take out two separate targets that were more than three paces away from one another. Hunter landed right on me, and Bernard made an impressive bump in the wall.

Psycho turned to Colleen and Kyle, but stopped in his tracks. He studied the two, who had stopped firing. Psycho chuckled. "Sorry, not allowed to hit ladies. Maybe we can play some other time."

With that, Psycho turned, and walked out. He didn't even look back. "Wow, what a weird guy." Hunter noted.

I looked down at him. "Out of my arms, please."

He looked up. "Oh, sorry." He hopped down. The collar-radio suddenly lit up. "Hey, Hunter! We've got the drive!"

**Section 4** – Young Swordsman

"You'd better run, or I'll turn your brain into Swiss cheese for that comment!" Kyle screamed after the mysterious attacker as he left, "You'll be so brain-dead that you'll have to -"

"Ahem…" I said to Kylie, putting a hand on her shoulder from behind. I knew how much she didn't want her secret to be out, (which brought up the question of how that guy either figured out or suspected Kylie's true gender in our minds) but I didn't want her to overdo it. She calmed down, but fired a few shots after the attacker, even though he was long out of sight. "Fine, fine…" Kyle said, "I'll stop." I patted her shoulder and tuned to my collar-radio. "Hold your position. We'll get to you," I said into it. "Holding position, but hurry up. I don't want the guards to find us first," said the voice at the other end, which I was sure was Gunther. I put away my bow and looked at Riot. "Riot," I said, "how long were you able to do that? I mean, how long were you able to change to cano-mutant form spontaneously?"

"Since about... forever," Riot replied a bit hesitantly. "Why?"

"Just wondering… I guess. It might've been nice to know about that earlier, but let's talk about it later. We've gotta get to Gunther and the others."

"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Colleen, "Who was that? I thought we decimated that guy who invaded our base days ago!"

"Psycho…" replied Riot in a rather vengeful manner. Clearly, Riot had a major grudge against this "Psycho" guy.

"… is probably the meanest of the mean of Cyrus' genetic operations. Not only can he heal rapidly, but also emit what's called 'cold fire.' Cold fire works the same as regular fire, except it burns the skin because it's cold. He'd probably be Cyrus' bodyguard if he wasn't so disobedient. He obeys nobody but himself, unless enough physical force is used to 'convince' him to do something."

"Holy…" mused Hunter, who was extremely shocked despite how soft his voice sounded.

"Come on, guys," urged Bernard, "we must get to others before Psycho gets to them!"

"True that," I said.

"Let's go, then!" exclaimed Hunter, who led the group out of the area and down the tunnel.

We went back through the tunnel we came through with all haste. Kyle spoke into his collar-radio as we ran, warning the others that Psycho might be heading their way. They responded that nobody was heading their way that they knew of, but they'd keep an eye out. Clearly, Psycho was a sadistic, death-obsessed madman if he obeys nobody but himself. Plus, that 180 head turn was just plain scary. Riot decided to keep his cano-mutant form, which turned out to be a Bernese Mountain Dog, since he was clearly more powerful in that form. I don't understand why he was hiding that from us all this time, since it was quite an asset to us, and far from anything you could call a hinderance.

Once we got to where all the tunnels began, we heard footsteps from one of them. Hunter spoke softly, but in a panicked state, into his collar-radio to the others, "Get out of there! Meet us where the tunnel began and we'll escape from there!"

"No need," replied the voice on the other end, "the footsteps you're hearing is us."

"Oh..."

Some of us laughed a bit, me included. Then, as if on cue, Gunther, Exile, Blitz, Gordon, and Blake stepped out of the tunnel. Gordon was holding up the drive we'd been looking for. "We should get out of here, actually," said Gunther, "whoever controls the computer mainframe might notice that the drive is gone, and may have sent a repair crew."

"Good point," said Blake.

"All right, then... let's just get out of here the way we came, right?" suggested Hunter

"Good idea," replied Riot.

"Wait, who's this?" interrupted Gunther, motioning his rifle at Riot.

"It's Riot," Riot replied, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Ask about his form later," said Blake, "right now, it's not important."

"Wait, shouldn't we check to make sure that the drive is the one we're looking for?" asked Hunter.

Gordon sighed and got out a small laptop computer from his backpack that was cased in some heavy duty metal, like the ones the military used. It was already booted up, so we saw the screen. Gordon plugged in the flash drive into a USB port, and we saw the symbol for that particular brand of flash drive pop up on the screen. He opened the file, and another file inside of it, and the screen turned to a map of the world, with a horizontal line and a vertical line intersecting at the point where our HQ is. On top of the map's depiction of Europe and Asia, exact lattitude/longitude coordinates were listed. "Yep," said Hunter, "those match up to the coordinates the computer on the Sky Rover gives us when we go back to base."

"Good," said Gordon, closing the computer and removing the flash drive, "then let's get out of here!"

We exited the building with all haste. We managed to get out of the actual structure, but when we got into the field that we had to walk through to get out of the compound, two figures stood in our way. One was a greyhound cano-mutant that clearly belonged to Cyrus, and the other, who had a similar build to Riot, except female, was an Australian Shepherd cano-mutant. She clearly wanted to be doing anything but be there, and the other was just the opposite, and he didn't even have one of those mind-control collars on him! Everyone pointed their weapons at them. Riot stepped forward to the front of the group. "Zig! You..." he began.

"Oh, Riot!" replied the greyhound (apparently named "Zig")with sarcastic joy, "So nice to see you again! I guess that hunter-seeker I sent after you didn't finish off you and your friends like I wanted... oh well, maybe I'll send your little friend to do that instead! Unless, that is, if you will kindly hand me that computer drive you seem to have recovered... but if you don't, we'll have to destroy you." he finished with a laugh. Everyone looked at Bernard, whom we assumed the greyhound was talking about, but when we saw that he and Riot were looking ahead, still, we looked that direction, and saw that he was actually talking about the female Aussie.

_Wow, no wonder she seems like she'd rather be anywhere else right now..._ I thought. _But how does she know Riot?_

I ran up to the front and drew my bow and an arrow. "You might want to reconsider that!" I exclaimed. "We don't take too kindly to death threats..."

"Oh shut up, you filthy knockoff!" he retorted.

_Oh, now I'm mad!_ I thought to myself. I turned to Riot. "Riot," I said, "help me deal with the Aussie. I don't want to accidentally kill or injure someone you care about, and I think you'd know how to keep her from involuntarily aiding this guy. Plus, I want to get her out of the control of this guy... it sickens me how cruel these bad guys can be, you know?"

Riot nodded. "As long as you keep those swords away from Annie, I'll be fine..."

"You got it!" I said.

Instantly after I said that, we both sprinted for the two of them. I heard Gunther shout in frustration, "Guys! Get out of there! We had a clear shot!"

The Aussie, whose name, according to Riot, was Annie, disappeared out of thin air! I tried to keep running, but I was baffled by what I saw nonetheless! Suddenly, she appeared out of nowhere right in front of us! Riot moved over to confront her, and I ducked and rolled out of the way. I didn't look back to see what she and Riot were doing, as I kept my attention on the greyhound. He held out his hand, and claws came spewing out of them! I ducked to avoid them, then drew back my arrow as far as the bowstring would allow, and fired. Zig managed to duck out of the way, and so I dropped my bow and got out my swords.

"Eat this!" I cried out, and jumped to attempt a downward hack on him. At the last minute, he jumped out of the way, and I hit the ground, but I got up quickly. "Why don't you just stand and fight, Mr. 'I'm so high-and-mighty'?" I taunted.

"I'm beyond your league, fool," he said in a bored manner, "it wouldn't be very fun finishing you off..."

"Oh, you might be surprised! I managed to single-handedly escape from a base just like this one, and I made it past some of Parvo's most elite forces in one piece!"

"Exactly, I'm beyond the league of anything Parvo can throw at either of us. Ha ha ha! I fought off two of Parvo's best at once... and you should have seen the looks on their faces! Ha! They were so-" He stopped in mid-sentence. I had thrown a knife at him, which hit him in the gut.

"Ha ha ha!" I mocked, "look who's got the look on his face now!"

Zig stood up and pulled the knife out. Clearly, it hadn't hit the exact place I wanted it to. Rather than hit the middle, it hit about the place where his appendix would be, if he even had one. To my surprise, his claws grew out like Blitz's. _You know,_ I thought, _Blitz might be helpful now if he wasn't so scared of a lot of stuff..._ I was sure this guy would scare Blitz out of his wits. I held up my swords, prepared for epic battle.

Zig took the first swing with one of his claws, which I blocked. His claws, however, sliced right through it! "Oh, damn..." I said as I threw down the now useless handle. I gripped my other sword with two hands, and decided that I should dodge rather than block, since blocking was clearly not an option anymore. I kept swinging at him, and he kept jumping out of the way. He was clearly extremely agile, and therefore really difficult to hit. I needed to distract him somehow, but since I didn't have two swords, I couldn't distract him with one, and sneak in a stab with the other like I normally would do. It was a difficult choice, but I decided that I had few other options. "Blitz!" I cried, "A little help here!"

I attempted one last blow, when Zig kicked my chest and knocked me down. "Copycat!" called out a German-accented voice from behind me. I knew it was Blitz as soon as I heard it. "Now you vill learn not to copy Blitz!"

_That's nice... _I thought, _The one thing Blitz isn't scared to do... fight someone who copied off of him. _I managed to stand up while Zig was distracted with fighting Blitz. He was actually holding up pretty nicely with his own set of almost indestructable claws. However, when Zig started launching his claws at Blitz, he ran for cover. I snuck up behind him, crouched down, and sliced at his Achilles' Heel tendon, causing him to scream and fall to his knees in pain. Until then, I never realized how fitting the name for that particular tendon was. I was about to finish him off when he turned around and tried to stab me with his claws. However, they didn't seem to have grown back far enough for them to be useful yet. They penetrated my skin, but not enough to cause internal bleeding. "Little unprepared with those, are we?" I joked.

"If you kill me..." he said, "The Kennel Master will get back at you for it! He will-"

He never got to say what the Kennel Master would do. Shots were fired from behind him, and he gasped, and fell over. I looked up, and saw Kylie holding the smoking rifle. She smiled at me, and I smiled back. Suddenly, Zig raised a hand with one claw on it, and aimed it at Kylie as a last act of his life. I quickly lopped it off, and drove my single sword into his back. His arm dropped. I felt his pulse, and when he had none, I pulled my sword out. Kylie smiled. "Remind me to thank you for that when I get back..." she said.

"Why can't you thank me right now?" I asked.

Kylie went over, peeled off her voice disguiser, and whispered something into my ear. My eyes widened a bit, and I replied "Ah, I see..."

She put her voice disguiser back on and smiled.

"Well," I said, "before we get all caught up with that too early, can you help me search this guy's body for the control device for that collar? I think he has the control for the Aussie that he was holding hostage..."

She nodded, "Sure," she said. Eventually, with Kylie's expertise on electronic devices, we found that it was disguised as a black-and-gold bracelet on his wrist. I originally thought it was some sort of fashion statement, but I guess this proved me wrong. I gripped it in my hand, and squeezed it tightly, still angry at how cruel such a device was. To my surprise, a bunch of electric sparks eminated from my fist, lasted for a few seconds, and then went away. The device made a few electrical malfunction noises, started arcing, and then stopped. Kylie was shocked. "It just shorted out!" she exclaimed. "You must've somehow overloaded its wires with a bunch of electricity or an EMP..."

"I don't know how I did it either..." I said, scratching my head, "but let's just try to physically break this just to make sure..." Right as I said that, I snapped the thing in half. I kept it in my hand, and stood up. I drove my sword into the ground next to Zig's body and left it there. "I was kinda wanting to switch swords soon, anyway," I said, laughing. Kylie laughed with me, and headed to the others. "Hey guys," I said, holding up the two pieces of the bracelet, "her control's broken. You can trust her, now!"

"Right," Kyle agreed, "plus, we should get out of here before more bad guys show up!"


	7. Secrets and Revelations

Part 7

**Part 7**

**Section 1 –** S.C. Wolfe

Back at rover headquarters, everyone was full of questions. Who was Annie? How did I know her? Why hadn't I told anyone about my true form? What was the connection between me and Psycho? My head was swimming. I felt sick. Not because there were so many questions, to be honest, but because I wasn't the one who got the pleasure of watching Zig take his last breaths. I don't like to think myself sadistic, but some people in life are so low, that they sell their lives to the highest bidder.

"Zig was like that," I told the rovers. "He would have killed an entire city…men, women, children and animals all…just for a pat on the head from Cyrus. That's why he and I never got along. In a manner of speaking, he and I are the same person. He was just a more murderous me."

"Well, I'd like to know more about Psycho. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to butt heads with him a good deal more than you do with…anyone." Gordon noted.

My eye twitched, and I tightened my hand into a fist.

"That isn't a story I'm ready to tell yet." I said slowly.

Hunter nodded. "Whenever you're ready, then. But, uh, what's with the new look?"

I looked at my padded hands. "I can tell you only what I know. You must remember that I don't exactly have a complete memory. As long as I can remember, this has always been my more natural form. I'm more in-tune like this than I am in human form. I doubt this power is one I was born with. One of the objectives of Cyrus' lab is to find ways to 'download' new powers to their experiments. Bernard, Anemos…Annie…and I were all guinea pigs there. Truth be told, any one of us could have a hundred different powers, but because of the constant mind-erasing, we may never know about more than two of them, only one of which we may be able to use."

"Is true." Bernard said, replying to the numerous blank stares. "As example, Zig was capable of super jump, super claw, and shooting claw."

I nodded. "He was also capable of super speeds similar to hunter, though not quite as fast or for as long a distance."

"Do you have any other powers? That you know of, I mean." Gunther asked.

I shrugged. "No. the only way I'd ever know was by accident, or if I had some way of recovering my memory."

"So, what about Psycho? That guy was a _creep_!" Kurt asked.

"Psycho is the most…the _most_ dangerous of all of the hunter-seekers. He has no taste for authority. I noticed when he and I were fighting that he wasn't wearing a collar. This means one thing and one thing only; he's free of Cyrus' control." I shivered slightly. "This is bad news for whoever is in his way. The only problem is that I have no idea where he'll be going or why. My best guess, if I had to take one, is that he's going to try and find Cyrus. He and I are alike in that way. We both want revenge."

Bernard looked distant for a moment. "Am thinking…" he hesitated. "…that maybe would be best to do the same. If Rovers can find Cyrus, can end this problem before problem gets bigger?"

Some of the rovers had a hard time following that. "Kill Cyrus…or imprison him…before he can do any real damage." I explained.

"And how do you propose we do that? Parvo has a base in Canada right now, and I don't like to think it'll stay there." Hunter said.

"Not to mention, we're not actually supposed to be here anymore." Gordon noted.

"Our orders were quite clear. Retrieve the disk, return to base." Jack added.

At that moment, Kyle, Colleen and Annie stepped into the room. They had been running a diagnostics scan on Anemos, making sure her blood work and heart rate were all fine. "She's as 'ealthy as 'ey come!" Colleen announced.

I stood up, having been on one knee. She stopped when she saw me, looking carefully over my form. When her and I were fighting outside of Parvo's base, she hadn't had time to recognize me. Now that she had the option to stand still, she recognized me in a moment. "I thought you hated that form?" her Canadian accent sounded a bit like Colleen, I noticed.

"I do."

"That brings up another question. Why haven't you changed back to your human form? To be honest, you seemed more comfortable in it." Kurt said.

I flexed my hand a few times. "Because I can't. yeah, I was shocked too. The second you first saw me like this, I instantly tried to turn back. The few memories I do have of this form are more like nightmares. I've been trying ever since then."

"Burnt out." Annie said.

"Would be making sense." Bernard nodded.

"What would make sense? What's burnout?" Kurt asked.

"Eh? Oh, it's when an unstable power is used under stressed conditions." Annie explained. "Riot's power required a complete change in DNA structure. Without the aid of a machine, this is very dangerous, eh. 'e changed form during a time of high intensity and emotional trauma. 'Is DNA couldn't handle it, so it buckled into place, so to speak, eh."

"So…"

"…I'm stuck like this until further notice." I interrupted Colleen. My eyes flashed white with anger, and I stormed out of the room. I leaned against the wall in the hall, and listened. Annie was speaking.

"You have to forgive him. His past and his current genetics make him irritable. That's quite likely what triggered his power at all."

"Why does he hate that form so much?" Exile asked.

"Same reason, in a manner of speaking, that he hates Psycho, eh."

"And why would that be?" Hunter asked.

"Anemos took a deep breath. "I'm only going to tell you this because he won't be ever able to, eh. Many of you may know he had a sister? I thought so. When the collars were still experimental, he was their test subject. Cyrus went through about a hundred different designs before the collars finally did what he wanted them to do. Cyrus wanted tested the final design on riot as well." Annie shivered. "He ordered Riot to kill Captain, Bernard and i. riot, being the guy he is, was ready to refuse no matter the pain. Cyrus added a final tweak to the device. One that made him literally controllable. Riot had no choice now. Instead of making riot kill us, he was brought to the fighting arena. In there, he came face to face with Psycho. They'd meat before, but never fought.

"To spice up the deal, Riot's sister was thrown into the chamber. I knew Anastasia long before I knew Riot. The match was every-man-for-himself…

_Riot stared between the two in shock. Psycho. He had meat Psycho before. The coyote was lazy-looking and slumped over. He was what was called a hunter-seeker, though. Riot looked back to Anastasia. Her fur didn't show how badly she was shivering underneath. Riot looked up to the viewing area, where Cyrus laid back in his seat. His new body guard, a young greyhound named Zig glared at Riot with a deal of humored interest._

"_Well? Let the show begin!" Cyrus called._

_Riot felt himself urged by the collar. He had to attack someone. He chose Psycho. Psycho laughed, and his arm lit on fire. Riot began throwing punches at Psycho, many of them landing with a great deal of force. Psycho looked at him sideways, smiled, and returned a punch. Riot flew across the small room, and hit the wall with such force that it cracked several ribs. He coughed blood, but he wasn't down yet._

_Riot looked up to see Psycho approaching Anastasia. He growled, and ran for Psycho. Stasia wasn't defenseless, but that didn't mean Riot was going to let something happen to her. Psycho heard Riot coming, and twisted his head a full 180 degrees. Riot stumbled, but kept his charge. He jumped into the air, and threw a hard kick at Psycho's head. the force landed right on the muzzle. Psycho's head Spun around another 180, and his body staggered. Riot knew what would happen next. He had to fight his sister, but the rule was that he only had to beat her. The collar would accept that as a solution._

_What he didn't expect was when Psycho stood back up. The coyote grabbed his head, and twisted it back into place with a grueling popping. Riot felt sick as the hunter-seeker laughed violently. He was unlike any other hunter-seeker Riot had ever seen! Riot ran for Psycho again. Psycho saw the charge, and his eyes turned blue. A solid stream of white mist shot right for Riot. Again, he was thrown against the wall. This time, however, he was frozen in place. Everything but his feet, left hand and head were frozen in place. Riot kicked and struggled, but the ice only tightened on him._

_Psycho walked coolly to Riot. "You're lucky I like you." He whispered. A strange, purple smoke came out of Psycho's mouth._

"_If you so much as hurt her, I'll kill you. Do you understand me?" Riot growled._

_Psycho let out a slow, deep laugh. He turned, and walked to where Anastasia had taken a defensive stance. "Free punch. Go ahead." He taunted._

_Anastasia threw her fist as hard as she could at Psycho's throat. It landed with a thud. Psycho shook his head slowly, and turned to face Riot. A long blade suddenly came jutting out of his elbow. He looked at Riot with his red and blue eyes, and gave a sarcastic pout. "I miss her already, don't you?_

The room was quiet. None of the rovers took their eyes off of the hall where I had gone. My stomach churned, and my eyes felt like they were on fire. My claws were cutting into my hands because my fists were clenched so tightly.

"He was forced to watch Psycho kill his sister, and for Anastasia's sake, I won't go into detail." Annie wiped a single tear from her eye.

"I had no idea." Colleen whispered.

"He hates Psycho with everything he is, eh. More so than even Cyrus. He blames Cyrus for everything, but it was Psycho who chose to actually kill his sister where it would have worked just fine to neutralize her, eh." Annie stated.

"You said you knew Riot's sister? How?" Kyle asked. His eyes were watered.

"Her and I lived in the same cell. She was always talking about Riot, eh. He wasn't always so irritable. The labs held Anastasia for the soul purpose of keeping Riot in line. With the invention of the collars, she became extra luggage for Cyrus." Annie said.

"Flushed." Bernard said monotone. "Is when lab has no use for you. You are told to fight, and you fight till you die. Psycho is known as 'finisher'. He finishes off survivors."

Kurt looked at Kyle, and then to the hall where I was. He saw me sitting in the shadow, and walked over to me.

He scratched between his ears, not quite sure to say. I didn't care if he said anything at that point. What I didn't expect was an apology. "Look, Riot… I'm sorry. I haven't trusted you because you acted so different. I thought you were…well…not one of us. So, what do you say we start over? Friends?" he offered me his hand.

I grasped his hand, and pulled him down to ear level. "Next time we see Psycho, he…is…mine."

Kurt nodded. "Dibs on Parvo, then." He said.

I smiled. Chuckled, and for the first time in years, I laughed.

**Section 2 – **Young Swordsman

I helped Riot to his feet once he was done laughing. "You know, you've got a good laugh… I think you should do it more often, ya know?"

"Maybe I should…" he replied, smiling.

I smiled back. I heard someone clear his throat. I looked up, and I saw Kyle standing there. "Nice to see you two finally getting along!" he said with a smile. I nodded. I felt it was nice that we finally got along as well. After hearing the story of what happened to him in the past, it was nice to see him like this. I was happy for him, actually. He'd had a hard life, and he was still getting used to not living one anymore. This had finally told me that he was finally getting used to it.

After Annie had finished with her story about Riot's past, she asked how Riot and Bernard had managed to remove their mind control collars. Exile volunteered to show her how he did it by demonstrating on her collar. She gladly accepted, and then headed to a more private area, at her request. Riot followed them, as he wanted to make sure that she would be OK during the process. Kyle and I reminded the others to try to not remind Riot of what happened in his past, as he was finally starting to be more upbeat than he used to be. After that, most of them dispersed to various areas of HQ, many of them talking in groups about what Annie had just told them. Kylie and I, however, were more pleased with how upbeat we had seen Riot a few minutes ago. Kylie, apparently thinking of something else entirely, leaned over to me, peeled off her voice disguiser, and whispered into my ear, "You know, I still haven't thanked you for saving my life…"

"Oh… right…" I said, a bit hesitantly.

"Oh come on!" she said, re-applying her voice disguiser, "nobody will notice!"

"Well, in that case let's stop talking about it," I said, "before someone wonders what we're talking about."

"Good idea," replied Kylie, who started walking to her room. I followed her, and we both entered her room, and closed and locked the door behind us. The last anyone could hear from us for the next fifteen minutes to a half hour was the click of the lock on the door.

About fifteen minutes to a half hour after the door was locked, the door unlocked, and out stepped me, feeling dazed and walking like I'd just gotten off a crazy roller coaster. "Wow…" I kept saying to myself. I managed to walk to the lounge area, and I lay on the couch. I think I fell asleep for a while, but I don't know how long. I do know that somebody woke me up. I opened my eyes, and it was Jack. "Jack!" I said, "I see those bruises have finally healed up!"

"Yeah, they did," he said, "Um, I wanted to ask you if you knew where Kyle was?"

"Uh, she should be in her room, I think… that's the last place I saw her."

"Thanks, Kurt," he replied, and walked off. I got up, as I had slept enough for me to not feel tired anymore, and stretched out a bit. I got up, and walked into the lobby area. I saw Riot, Exile, and Annie step into the area, with Exile holding the collar that used to be around Annie's neck. "I see you finally got that thing off!" I exclaimed.

"We sure did," replied Annie. Riot was smiling.

Exile, also smiling, threw the collar into the incinerator.

Most of the strike team members were with Jack, congratulating him on his quick recovery, even though his injury was mainly a huge bruise on his back. The hunter-seeker that threw him apparently wasn't trying to kill him, as we had figured out that they were capable of much worse damage. I walked over to them, wanting to join them. Jack, however, noticed me, and pulled me aside. "Kurt," he said, "How long have you known that… "certain thing", let's just say, about Kyle?"

I gulped. "For… a few days…" I sighed. "Look, she told me not to tell anyone, and I kept the promise."  
Jack nodded. "She told me the same… well, that makes two of us, then."

"Three, actually. Blake knows, too. He's known longer than I have; before you all joined with the Rovers in Sicily."

"You know," said Jack, "this has 'scandal' written all over it. If Gunther finds out, he'll kick her off the team. Lying on your resume calls for that. But, as sexist as all of the tryouts for any of the strike teams are, I would have done the same if I was in her position."

I nodded. "By the way, just curious, how did you find out?"

"Let's just say that I've had my share of surprises… and she caught me, and then she threatened my life, and told me not to tell anyone, especially not Gunther, and now we're all cool."

I nodded. "You should let Blake know that, too. Just so he's aware that you know."

Jack nodded in agreement. "What about Gordon?" he asked, "I don't want to leave him on the outs with this… Gunther is really the only stickler of the rules in our team, really…"

"I'll ask her."

"All right. I'll keep this on the down-low."

"Carry on, then," I finished.

He smiled a bit, and headed back. I was nervous. This secret was spreading a little too fast for me, and probably Kylie as well. I was getting a bad feeling about this, since one slip-up could mean that the secret would be exposed to everyone, and that was the last thing Kylie wanted to happen.

Blake met up with me and told me that Jack had told him about what he recently found out. We were both clearly nervous, but we were relieved when the Master called us into the briefing room. Once we assembled there, he told us that the space HQ wanted the Strike team to either return to base or at least re-supply there. They needed at least three members to go up to the space station and get all the supplies they could carry, and then the same amount of supplies for the other two. Gunther, Blake, and Jack volunteered to go. Then, to everyone's surprise, Annie did as well! "I need to get a new start," she explained to us, "after being under the influence of Cyrus for so long, my mind needs to be re-adjusted on the fast track, eh?"

The Master nodded. "I cannot stop you from doing what you believe to be right," he said, "I do hope we will hear from you soon." With that, the Master headed out. "The transport should be arriving in about twenty minutes outside of the hangar," he added.

**Section 3 –** S.C. Wolfe

I want too surprised at Annie's decision. She had always had a certain interest with space. I was happy for her, but I was sad the same.

"Oh, don't be such a puppy." She said.

I snickered in return. "Well, I hope you do well up there. I hear they're sexist."

She smiled. "I'd like to see any of them try to keep me out."

I laughed again. Man, it felt good to do that again. Annie gave me a big hug, which I hadn't expected. I was a tad more shocked with myself, however, when I hugged her back. "I'll miss you." I said.

"I'm going to say by to Bernard. I'll see you again before I leave." Annie walked out of the room.

I sighed, and slumped against a wall. Life was changing so fast! I was having a hard time keeping up. I looked down at my open paw. I hadn't been like this in a very long time. I had hated this form as long as my memory told me, and now I was stuck in it.

"What are you thinking about?" Kyle asked. I hadn't seen him coming.

"Nothing important, actually." I replied, but then a thought occurred. "You mind listening to me for a moment?"

"Not at all. I was meeting Kurt here for…erp…schematic updates soon anyway." He replied.

I paused to look at Kyle, wondering why he had tripped on his words? It didn't matter. I began pacing back and forth. "It's just a funny though. See, Cyrus has a bad ol' habbit of not being happy with what he's got. He holds that standard to his…prisoners and soldiers as well. He spent years experimenting on powers. We have…certain aspects of our genetics and our characteristics that give us our powers. He found a way to literally inject you with powers. It's a known fact that the hunter-seekers are his Guinea pigs, well, when something has a load of potential, he shoots it into a series of side experiments like Bernard, Annie and myself."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I have other powers, I just don't know what they are or how to use them, thanks to his lovely memory wiping. Like I said, it was just a passing thought." I said.

Annie stepped into the room suddenly. "Have you seen Bernard? I went to his room, but all of his stuff is gone."

I stood up straighter, and thought. "Not since we were in the common room a couple hours ago. Maybe he's being obsessive compulsive?"

Annie crossed her arms. "He was never obsessive compulsive."

"Then I don't know."

"Come to think of it, I didn't see him in the kitchen either." Kyle noted. "That's where I always see him.

I laughed. "Yeah, that's Bernard. Thinking with his stomach."

A red light began flashing. "What's happening?" Hunter asked as he stepped into the room.

"Don't know. Light just started flashing." I said.

Hunter stepped over to a wall monitor, and typed in a series of passwords. "Someone's taking the sky rover!" hunter exclaimed. "We need the master's permission to use the vehicles."

I looked at Annie. "See if you can find Bernard. I'll go check out the hanger."

"I still need to meet with Kurt." Kyle said unsurely.

"Okay, I'll go with Riot." Hunter said with a smile.

I nodded, and we all split up. Luckily, the hanger wasn't a long walk away. Hunter hummed as he walked. He was actually pretty good. _Maybe I should consider music for a hobby?_ I dismissed the idea instantly. My voice was scratchy compared to any I had ever heard. A singing voice wouldn't be much better. Then again, instruments didn't require a good voice?

Nah.

Hunter paused lone enough to talk to Blitz. "We're going to check out the hanger. You in?"

"Dah, why not? It's not like there's anything good on TV anyway." He said, dropping the TV remote. He looked at me suspiciously for a second before we continued.

The hanger looked perfectly normal to me, given the fact that the sky rover was in launching position.

"Huh? Maybe it was a mechanical malfunction?" I suggested looking at the giant mechanical arms that placed the various vehicles on the launch pad.

"No, I don't think so. We usually don't even use the automatic feature on those." Hunter said.

I stepped into the hanger, and was blind-sided. I heard the sound of fighting, but my vision was completely black. I tried standing up, but my legs slipped, and I collapsed back down. The fighting went silent, and someone fell to the ground next to me. A massive armored hand reached down, and pulled me up by the scruff of the neck. Armored hand? Cyrus's standard issue armor had armored gloves!

I opened my eyes again, but my vision was still horribly impaired. I could see the silver of the armor, and the loose-fit cloth. The outfit reminded me a lot of a Japanese style outfit. This was one of Cyrus's stooges alright. How did they keep getting in here?

"Did not expect you to be going down so easy, Riot." My limbs froze solid. I shook my head, and tried to resist being held. That was making it hard to breathe. My limbs were almost completely numb, however. "I knew Hunter would be easy to take out. He isn't like us, Riot. No rovers are like us. We're Cyrus's masterpieces. We just were too foolish to realize it."

I suddenly didn't want to see, but my vision returned to me. I was being held in the air with a single arm. Bernard had always been strong. I was immediately filled with confusion, then hurt, and then rage. "What are you doing!?"

"Reconciling."

Kurt and Kyle walked in at that moment. "We heard commotion!" Kurt said. He froze, and took in the scene.

"It would have been good to bring you back with me, Riot, but this jump drive is enough to buy my trust back." Bernard said, showing the crowd the drive we had taken from Parvo.

With that, Bernard threw me at Kurt and Kyle with enough force to send the three of us flying back into the hall. I couldn't have moved if I wanted to. I looked around after a moment. The sky rover was taking off! I reached around, and yanked Kyle's gun from his side. I blindly opened fire into the hanger before I blacked out.

**Section 4 – **Young Swordsman

Kyle and I lifted Riot's unconscious body off of ours as soon as he passed out. "Gunther!" Kyle called out, standing up and helping me up at the same time, "Tell the transport ship to intercept the Sky Rover upon entering the atmosphere!"

"Exile!" I called out, "Get your ship up and outta here! We've got to catch up with the Sky Rover! Hunter! Get the Master to deploy all surface-to-air missiles and any other anti-aircraft weapon we have at our disposal! We can't let the Sky Rover get away!"

"I'm on it!" Hunter replied.

"I get ship running and up!" Exile proclaimed, excitedly.

Blitz came dashing into the room. "Vat happened?" he asked, looking around, somewhat confused. "Vere is the Sky Rover?"

"Stolen," I replied. "Bernard had a change of heart, and is taking it to Cyrus' place."

Blitz looked terrified.

"Get onto Exile's ship," I told him, "We're going to intercept this sucker…"

Blitz seemed to get a bit more riled up when I told him that, and he jumped into Exile's ship, followed closely by Exile himself.

The Master raised the alarm, and by the time all of the turrets and all other anti-aircraft devices were deployed, Exile, Blitz, Kylie, Gordon, and I, had boarded Exile's ship. The Master gave us permission to pursue the Sky Rover, so we took off and went after it at full speed. Given the fact that Exile's ship was smaller than the Sky Rover, it could go slightly faster than the Sky Rover. Plus, since we had tracking on the Sky Rover, we knew exactly where it was! As soon as we left the hangar, the first thing we noticed was the Sky Rover in the distance being met with a hail of gunfire and multiple surface-to-air missiles being launched at it. I was surprised at how many of them were there! I mean, sure there had to be some, but the Master had clearly prepared for a massive intrusion, and now it was being used to prevent something from getting out. While Exile focused on the mission at hand, Kyle took Gordon to a back corner of the ship to talk to him. Blitz and I, however, were focused on helping out Exile. We caught up with the Sky Rover just as it was passing through the outer, thinning lines of anti-aircraft weapons around the base. The Sky Rover had taken some damage from the anti aircraft guns and at least one missile, but it was still able to fly. I took up the com link from the dashboard, and contacted the Sky Rover with it. "Bernard," I said, "you'd better land that ship. The AA guns and surface-to-air missiles were your first warning. This is your last. Land the ship or we _will_ shoot you down!"

"Why should I?" he asked, "I am trying to prove loyalty to Cyrus, and you expect me to just land and surrender?"

"He does have point…" Exile commented.

"I vouldn't land in that situation, eiser," added Blitz.

"Well, he's had his warning, then," I said as I clicked off the com link. "Open fire, Ex."

Exile hesitated for a split second, but opened fire anyway. His ship was armed with some large laser cannons, and a 50 caliber machine gun as a secondary weapon. He opened fire with the laser cannons, and Blitz, who took the co-pilot seat, fired off the machine gun.

After about ten minutes of solid firing, the Sky Rover had taken enough damage that it was slowly losing altitude. Bernard was better at flying the Sky Rover than we thought he was, as he had managed to avoid many of our shots, but not good enough to avoid being basically shot down. Blitz and Exile were high-fiving each other when a transmission came in. "Exile 001, this is Transport Alpha, do you read?" a voice said. Exile picked up the comm. link and put it on. "Exile 001, copy," he replied.

"Exile 001, we are en route to intercept the Sky Rover. We have just entered the atmosphere. What is the status of the Sky Rover?"

"Transport Alpha, Sky Rover is losing altitude, but pilot is better than we thought…"

"Keep an eye on it. We'll intercept and help you out if you come into any trouble with the pilot, over."

"Richard, over."

_It's Rodger, you…_ I thought to myself. I shook my head and let the thought go.

The Sky Rover eventually crash-landed in the desert sand, kicking up a massive amount of it that almost obscured our vision, and rendered us unable to see where it landed. We circled around it for a minute or two, and the sand cleared up, allowing us to see the Sky Rover, and its lone pilot who had exited it and began running. Exile quickly landed the ship, and we all exited the ship, and pursued Bernard. I drew out my bow and arrow, since both of my original swords were left in Poland, Kyle and Gordon drew their rifles, and Blitz drew his blaster pistol. Exile, however, used his eyes for this purpose. He created a slick layer of ice under Bernard's feet, causing him to slip and slide until he fell on his back, and kept sliding. We caught up with him when he got stuck in the sand, and was struggling to get up. Blitz, Gordon, and Kyle held their weapons to his head. Not heeding their warning, he knocked them all away with one swift motion of his arm. Given his superhuman strength, I didn't want to go hand-to-hand with this guy, especially without my hand-to-hand weapons. Exile, however, had superhuman strength as well, so he was more than a match for Bernard. One by one, they exchanged blows, mainly towards the head and chest. However, Bernard was clearly better trained than Exile was, and Bernard managed to find a sensitive nerve spot on Exile's chest, and exploited it with a roundhouse kick to it. Exile fell over backwards, seemingly unconscious.

Everything seemed to be lost when he turned to me. Suddenly, a loud noise came out of nowhere. I looked up, and the transport ship was right above us! It didn't stay there for long, though, as it landed quickly near us. A couple Dobermans, who seemed like members of what I guessed was the Space Rovers' version of Marines exited the ship with weapons similar to those of the strike team, but with desert camouflage on their armor. After seeing Blitz, Kyle, and Gordon a good distance away, still getting out of the sand, they raised their weapons at Bernard. "Get on your knees, and put your hands behind your head!" ordered one of them.

To everyone's surprise, he did! But we still kept our guard up. He could be tricking us. One of the marines pointed his rifle at Bernard, and the other went over to handcuff him. Blitz, Gordon, and Kyle had gotten out of the sand and were walking over towards us. Just as the marine began to handcuff him, Bernard grabbed his wrist, and threw him towards the ship that he came out of. The marine hit the ship, and fell to the ground, injured, but still conscious. The pilot came out with some medical supplies to help him out. The other marine opened fire on Bernard, who had started charging him. Bernard took a few shots to the gut and chest, but was still running. The marine attempted to draw his pistol, but Bernard got to him first. With a quick motion, Bernard broke his forearm, and the Doberman fell to the ground, screaming in pain. He then turned his attention towards me. I fired an arrow at him, and hit his shoulder. Furious, he ran towards me. I held up my fists in what would likely be a futile attempt to defend myself, until there was a gunshot, and his eyes widened. Then he fell flat on his face. Blood was on the back of his head. Behind him, the marine with the broken arm held the smoking blaster pistol with his left hand. "Uh, thanks, man…" I managed to say, still in a bit of shock.

"Don't mention it," he replied, "c'mon, let's get everyone outta here. I'll radio for a salvaging crew to clean up this mess."

I nodded. "You know, you're a good shot with your left hand," I commented. I felt that it had to be said.

"Thanks," he replied, only this time with a happier tone in his voice, "I'm ambidextrous, so it wasn't too hard for me."

I nodded once again, and then turned to get the others into Exile's ship. Then, I went over and dragged Exile's unconscious body to his ship. The pilot of the transport ship had finished helping out the marine that was thrown, and began helping the one with the broken arm. Once I got everyone back into Exile's ship, I turned to the pilot and the two marines. "Head back to HQ with us," I suggested to them, "we've got a good medical facility there…"

"Sure thing!" replied the pilot. With that, he helped the two marines back into the transport ship, and it took off. Out of sympathy for Bernard, despite the fact that he was a traitor, I carried his body into Exile's ship, putting it in a metal container in the cargo bay of it. I figured it was the least I could do for Riot; bring back the body of his best friend.

**Section 5 - **S.C. Wolfe

When they brought Bernard's body back, the first thing I did was draw my blaster. The Rovers looked sickened as I fired off several more rounds into the body. "Wha' are you doing?!" Colleen exclaimed.

"Yeah! He's a traitor, I know, but that's just sick!" Kurt agreed.

I replaced the pistol, and looked at the rovers. "You've seen Cyrus's work before. Why do you think he wouldn't give infantry the abilities he gives his hunter-seekers? Fact is, you can never be too sure. I thought you'd have learned that with Psycho."

Everyone looked disturbed, but they at least understood. The space rovers had finally arrived, and apparently helped out with Bernard. I rubbed my head, which was still throbbing, and colleen slapped my nose with two fingers. I yipped, and looked at her.

"I said no rubbing!" she exclaimed. "Your head could have fractured. You're lucky as it is, but your head is still beaten up pretty bad."

I snickered a tad, and almost rubbed my head again. Forced habit. Apparently, Bernard had given a fight in the end, though I for one was surprised he hadn't used one of the space rovers or the drop ship itself as a club.

"So, what now. We're losing a number of our guys, for a little time anyway." I said.

"We track down Cyrus and Parvo. Whoever comes first." Hunter said, arms folded.

"To start off with, we know they both have no less than one existing base, give or take the possible Canadian base. That and we know they're raising an army." Kurt said as he inspected his fur.

I nodded. "So then we stop them. Simple answer to a complex problem. Where it gets hard again is how to do that."

Kurt stood up straight. "Well, I'm going to check on our wounded marines before they ship back up." He said as he made for the door.

"I'd like to say bye to Annie again." I said.

"I'll go with Kurt." Kyle said. Everyone split up after that, but I found myself watching Kyle leave. He was walking funny…too…smooth. And why was he always hanging with Kurt? Maybe they were related? Good friends? Kyle was a strange individual. A thought occurred. If there was one thing you could say about Psycho, it was that he was always sure of what he said. What had he said to Colleen and Kyle? _I'm not allowed to hit ladies._ He could have been taunting…he was infamous for that. No. as I watched, Kyle gave Kurt a brush with his tail.

"Bernard isn't the only one with two faces." I smiled to myself, and stepped out of the room, ignoring the alarmed stare from Kurt. I didn't care. Everyone had their own secrets.

**Section 6 – **Young Swordsman

I took a few steps after Riot when a hand grabbed the scruff of my neck to hold me back. I tried to keep walking, but even the excess skin on the back of my neck didn't stretch that far. "Stop, Kurt," Kylie said, with her voice disguiser still on, "if you question him in the way I think you want to, you'll only draw more attention to him, therefore making it more likely for him to talk."

I stopped walking, and Kylie let go of the scruff of my neck. "If he talks, you'll get kicked off the strike team!" I protested.

"You know…" she said, sighing, "I've recently been getting the feeling that I'd be discovered sometime soon… and to be honest, if I was exposed, I'd be more relieved than you think. I've lived through most days scared to death that I'd be exposed, and it's hard, you know? I just like to think that maybe if or when I get exposed, I'll be done with this whole deception thing."

I nodded. "I couldn't possibly imagine," I said, putting my arm around her shoulder. She smiled a bit.

"Plus, if I get exposed, I could join the Road Rovers and be with you all the time…" she added with a smile.

I smiled widely, and gave her a lick on the cheek. "That's really flattering, you know?" I told her. She smiled. "Come on," I continued, "let's go before someone finds us and wonders what we're doing."

We reached the medical room where Colleen was finishing wrapping a plaster cast on the broken arm of the marine that shot Bernard. "How's it feeling?" I asked him.

"A lot better once she administered the antibiotics," he said, "I think I was about to get Gangrene when I got here…"

"It was broken clear in 'alf! Gangrene was onset a lot faster than normal because o' that," commented Colleen as she finished the last layer of plaster on the cast.

"Well, it's good to know that you're OK," said Kyle. The marine nodded and we headed to the other one who was thrown against the transport. The pilot of the transport was attending to him.

"How's he doing?" Kyle asked.

"He's fractured a few ribs, but nothing serious other than that," the pilot explained, "He should heal them in a couple months."

"Some saint he was," the marine commented, likely referring to Bernard's breed name being "St. Bernard."

"I'll say," I commented.

We stayed there for a bit, until Colleen told us that the marines had done enough talking. We headed out, wishing the marines a speedy recovery. When we left the room, the conversation switched again to Riot. However, Kylie made a point to not talk about him, so that stopped. I guess she figured that it was now a matter of time before someone squealed on her to Gunther. I had to commend her. I'd be scared out of my wits in her situation, but she… she was all calm. Kinda like I was right before the Rovers found me in the desert along that country highway. I still remembered it; I held out my arms like Jesus on the cross, and looked up, knowing almost for sure that I was done for. Kylie was being like that. She knew it was coming, and now she knew that her only choice was to expect it sooner or later. I had to commend her for it. She was strong, both physically and mentally. Riot could have told the entire base Kylie's secret by now, and she'd still be the same as she always was since the first time I met her. And for that, I loved her with all my heart.

We headed to the hangar, where the transport had landed. Riot was saying his goodbyes to Annie, and I saw the pilot helping the injured marines into the ship. The members of the strike team who were to go up in the ship had apparently already boarded, and were waiting to take off. Once Riot finished with Annie, she boarded the ship, and waved goodbye to Riot right before she stepped inside. The pilot, after helping the marines into the ship, got into the cockpit and started the engines. We stood there and watched as the transport took off and flew further and further away until we could not see it anymore. I hoped Riot wouldn't have too many hard feelings after watching his best friend leave him once again, but then again, she was not going to the enemy to aid them. I think he understood.

Once everyone cleared out of the hangar, I headed back to my room, and sat down on my bed. So much had happened in the last week, that it was rather overwhelming. As I racked through the events of what had happened, one of them caught my attention. I remembered when I apparently emitted an electromagnetic pulse with my bare hand when I held the control to Annie's collar. Was that my special ability, or something? I figured that I should at least see if I could do anything else with it.

In the training room, I stood ready. There were dummies standing there, but they weren't moving, or attacking, or anything. Just targets for me to practice on. I held out my palm, and tried to focus my energy there. Nothing. "Zap!" I cried out, thinking that maybe it would help. Still nothing. _What could it be, then?_ I wondered. I racked my brain thinking of what might activate it. Suddenly, a thought hit me. Maybe it couldn't travel through air, but only through direct contact, or at least I should be a lot closer to my target. I walked until I was about three inches from the dummies. I held out my hand in front of its face, and attempted to focus my energy to my hand again. To my surprise, electric currents flowed from my hand to the dummy! "Yes!" I cried out. It was a short-range ability, but at least it worked. I could probably electrocute somebody, or disable their equipment with this. Well, maybe I could do better if I worked on it more, but it was at least a start!

I headed towards the lounge area where Kylie and Gordon were. "Hey guys," I greeted them. They looked up and nodded at me. Kylie smiled a bit.

"Hey, have you heard?" asked Gordon.

"About what?" I asked.

"Kyle... er... Kylie, is going to break the secret to Gunther once he gets back."

My jaw dropped. "Are you serious?"

"Yep," affirmed Kylie, "I figured two things: 1. I'm tired of pretending to be someone else all the time. And 2. I might as well, since everyone seems to be on the verge of figuring it out anyway. I mean, Riot just did, and I think it's a matter of time before the rest of the Rovers find out as well."

I bit my lip. She was brave, but this sounded a bit too rash. But then again, I knew that Gunther was kind to his allies, and I figured that the worst he could do was to discharge Kylie, and maybe make it an honorable one at that. "That's a brave thing for you to do, Kylie," I said, "and as much as I want to protest, I trust your judgment."

Kylie smiled. "Thanks," she said, "not many people would understand that, if they were in your position, but I'm glad you do."

I sat down next to them. "You know," Gordon said, "I'll miss you once this is over... you've always been the most optimistic one on the team... the team will seem... well, incomplete without you..."

"I know, Gordon," agreed Kylie, "it'll feel weird not being around you and the rest of the team once this is all over. But, I'll still remember you all, and I'll make sure to contact you whenever I can, OK?" she said, smiling.

Gordon seemed to get a bit teary-eyed, and put his arms around Kylie. She hugged back. I sat there and watched. I was actually OK with that, since I understood what they were both feeling. People you've been with for a long time are hard to separate from. So I let them be.

The three of us remained in the lounge area, talking about various things. Kylie had taken the liberty of removing her voice disguiser, saying that it made her feel more like herself. It was fine with us, until Hunter walked by and heard her voice. He turned around, and stared at us. "Did you guys just hear Colleen talking?" he asked us, "because she's on the other end of the building..."

"It's me," said Kylie.

Hunter's jaw dropped. "Kyle...? You're...?"

"A girl, yes," she finished for him, "I'm going to break the news to Gunther once he gets back."

Hunter, still shocked, put a hand to his forehead, and walked out. We all looked at each other nervously. We knew he was a nice person and everything, but we were very uncertain about how he may react to this...


	8. Hallucinations? We Wish!

**Section 1 - ** Young Swordsman

Hunter put his hand on the wall and leaned on it. His hand was still on his forehead. He had just found out that Kyle, who was now revealed to be Kylie, a member of the Strike Team, whom he and the rest of the Rovers had put their full trust in on more than one occasion, had lied to them the entire time. He racked his brain, trying to think if this was not that big of a deal or if it was. Part of him told him that it wasn't a big deal; it was only her gender, really. That wasn't going to be detrimental to anyone! Would it? The other part of him wondered how she could keep up this lie for so long, and also wondered who else, besides Gordon and Kurt, knew about it. Who else kept this secret from him?

A hand touched Hunter's shoulder. Hunter turned around, and saw Kylie. Hunter blurted out the first question that was in his head. "Why did you keep it secret?" he asked.

Kylie bit her lip. "When I was brought into the Space Rovers program from the streets of Chicago," she began, "I had already learned a whole lot of things from living on those streets. One of which was that females are not respected for much of anything in the canine world. Males were leaders, and females were second-class. Although I went through basic training for the Space Rovers alongside both males and females, I already had a preconceived notion that I would never be respected, despite the fact that I'd seen more harsh realities than most of the males there. Once basic training was over, I was informed by someone I befriended on the inside that things were generally the same after basic training. I had tried twice as a female to get into a Strike Team, and both times I failed, even though I knew I had done better than the others in the tryouts. It was then when I figured that I had to either settle with being in an office job or change my gender. I chose the latter, mainly because I couldn't live in an office job. I'd fought brutally on the streets of Chicago many times, and that lifestyle is hard to let go of. So I put together a portable voice disguiser that I taped to my neck, and disguised with fake fur. I did pretty much the same tryout the same way, and lo and behold, I made it into the Strike team. I could never turn back. I didn't turn back until I finally found an exception to the rule I thought I'd learned. Blake noticed that my voice was sounding funny, and I found out that my voice disguiser was malfunctioning. Blake, rather than rat me out on the spot, helped me put it back together, and promised to keep my secret safe. So he did. To make the rest of the story short, I fell in love with someone, told him, then Riot found out, and then I realized that the jig was up, and I must reveal myself, now. I am sorry I lied to you and to everyone else, Hunter." Kylie paused. "Can you forgive me?" she asked, sounding slightly like she was about to cry.

"I know I can," said another female voice from behind her. Kylie turned around, and there was Colleen. "Huntie," she addressed, "I knew about it since she decided to tell me. I kept her secret because like 'er, I know all about bein' disrespected from before I was a Rover."

Hunter managed to crack a smile. "I guess I have no choice but to forgive the both of you, then..." he said, seemingly unable to talk above a whisper for the time being. Colleen smiled and gave Hunter a big hug. Colleen brought Kylie into it as well. "You're brave, Kylie," she told her, "I'd never manage enough courage to do wha' you're gonna do."

"And plus," added Hunter, "there's always room on the Rovers for another recruit..."

Kylie's face lit up like the sun.

.

After a couple days, the Strike Team returned, only without Annie, who had decided to stay up with the Space Rovers. They were greeted, and were instantly helped out with their many cases of ammunition and supplies. When the transport ship headed back to its base, and we finished with the supplies, the Master called us all into the briefing room. He only said that there was something important that needed to be said.

When everyone filed into the briefing room, the first thing that Gunther noticed was that Kyle was not present. "Where did he go?" he asked. He continued to ask everyone if they knew where he was, but it was cut short when we heard someone clear their throat. We all turned towards the area where the Master usually stood. There, right in the center of it, was Kyle. "Listen," he said, "I've served alongside this unit of the Space Rovers Tactical Legions for about two and a half years, now. It has been an honor being with you all, an honor to fight alongside some of the most elite individuals the Space Rovers have. I couldn't have asked for a better team. Having come from the back streets of Chicago, I have always been relieved to be with others who respect me. However, I did something that probably doesn't deserve any respect back. I've been... well, living a lie since I joined." Kylie then peeled off her voice disguiser. I bit my lip. Gunther, Blitz, and Exile looked at each other, wondering what that was. "This, my friends, is the voice disguiser I have been wearing all the time I was with the team," she said. The three who didn't know she was a female already widened their eyes when they heard Kylie's female voice. "...And I wore it because I was afraid that those who choose who goes on the strike teams would not respect me due to my gender. I had experienced this before back on the streets of Chicago, and I expected little differences. I kept up my fake identity for the past two and a half years, not telling anyone. But now, seeing that people have been cluing into this fact, among other reasons, I am now choosing to discard my false gender identity forever. That being said, I figure that it is not a good idea to have my fate be decided by others. Instead, I shall decide it myself, so I hereby resign from Space Rovers Tactical Unit #257. Like I said, it was an honor to serve."

Kylie saluted the Strike Team after her resignation speech had concluded. The Rovers and I stepped back, and the rest of the Strike Team stepped forward. They returned the salute. "I am sorry to hear this... um..." Gunther stumbled in his speech.

"It's Kylie," she told him.

"Right, Kylie... I'm sorry to hear this. I am honestly dismayed that you lied to me all this time, to be perfectly honest."

Kylie nodded.

"However," he continued, "I _do_ appreciate that you told the truth just now. Fortunately for you, since you resigned before I could discharge you, I don't have to put 'lied on application' on your service record."

Kylie smiled a bit, and nodded again.

Gunther continued, "Now, since you did just resign, I must ask you to turn in your armor and weapons by the end of the day, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Kylie replied.

.

I don't know how long it was before things seemed to return to normal in terms of Kylie revealing her true gender. What it really was was that everyone who didn't know for as long as Blake and I had known had trouble calling her "Kylie" as opposed to "Kyle." But however long it took, it wasn't too long. A couple days passed before we would need to head out on assignment again. Kylie didn't talk much about the fact that she wasn't on the Strike Team anymore, likely because she didn't want to think about it herself. She did, however, join the Road Rovers. It wasn't too much special, because there really wasn't a set ceremony for that, except for Hunter handing her her Road Rovers uniform. Anyway, we were called in to the briefing room about two days after the event. The Master was standing in his usual spot, next to the map of the world on the large computer monitor.

"Rovers," he said, "we've been putting off this base in the Canadian Rockies for too long. Recently, the Canadian army has sent in a recon team to that base, and they discovered that this man has just arrived there." The screen to his left zoomed in on Western Canada. When the zooming stopped, and the picture enhanced itself, it showed a satellite view of a military compound. It seemed that everyone at the compound was gathered to greet their leader, since there was a whole bunch of people surrounding one other. The screen zoomed in again, rotated to show a side-on shot, and then showed a close-up view of the person that all the others were surrounding. I didn't know who it was at first, but apparently Riot did. "Cyrus..." He muttered. "According to Canadian intelligence, this is Charlie R. Sando, a.k.a Cyrus," The Master said, "Degree in engineering from MIT, and specialized in biotech. However, after he left MIT, almost nothing else is known about him, except that someone with ties to him was caught trying to kidnap students from the Missouri Military Academy," the screen switched to the front page of a newspaper article about the incident, "but the FBI could not determine if Cyrus was responsible for the kidnappings, or if he was even involved with it. However, knowing what we already know, with his likely alliance with Parvo, and the number of cano-mutants and standard troops he has at his command, he is not to be underestimated."

"Plus, he's probably got everyone's mind controlled at that base..." Riot added.

"Very likely," said the Master. "Now," he continued, "we don't have much time to waste. Just minutes after this picture," the screen switched back to the recon photo, "was taken, all of the humans in this picture went into the building and never came back out. In fact, there isn't anything outside of the base that is moving at the moment."

"That's a bad sign," said Riot, "that probably means that he's already beginning his dirty work, whatever that may be."

"Then we've gotta get moving!" exclaimed Hunter.

"I have nothing more to say," said the Master, "move out!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone exclaimed. We headed out towards the hangar. This time, however, rather than gather in the Sky Rover and Exile's ship, we took the Rover Bus. That, as I found out, was the very bus that I had seen when it all began so long ago on the side of that country highway in the desert. It was kind of a nostalgic experience for me, even though I only saw one side of it, and I didn't remember what the inside of it looked like. We had to take the bus because of two reasons: 1. It was undetectable by radar. 2. The bus was not painted in any distinct way, so it could easily be mistaken for a typical Greyhound bus. It was kind of odd being in a non-combat vehicle for the first time since before I was taken to Parvo's lab. But I got used to it rather quickly. The bus took an underground pathway that led up to a part of a country highway (not the one I was found on, though) that experienced little traffic. When we got onto the highway, we headed towards Interstate 5 North, which would take us straight to Canada. Since there wasn't anything interesting on the way up to Canada, we had to bide our time through other means.

**Section 2** – S.C. Wolfe

That was probably the single most boring ride of my life. For the first hour or so, we discussed the various tactics we expected. The conversation then moves to various experiences of the past, though my input was rather limited. After that, the Rovers divided up amongst ourselves for individual entertainment. I was reminded at that point that I hadn't ever found myself a hobby.

I amused myself for a short time by watching the new-found "Kylie" interact with Kurt. I smiled to myself. It wasn't a topic of great discussion, now would it be, I suspected, though I found it ironic how their forming romance had been the doom of such a well kept secrete. I noticed a twitch in Kurt's neck muscle, indicating he was turning his head. I turned my eyes away and glared out the window beside me, just in time to avert his gaze. He looked as though he wanted to talk for a moment, but settled himself back next to Kylie. What really came as a shock was when Blitz seemed to recognize _just_ then that there were sparks between the two.

I rubbed my eyes, and looked at Kurt. For a moment, I had though I had actually seen a spark!

I sniffed, turned to the window, and my mind inevitably turned to the most recent betrayal in my life. Bernard.

Why had he turned not only on the Rovers, but on _me_ like that? He and I had been brothers in every way except for our blood. I sniffed, and unconsciously ran my hands over the blaster at my waist. Despite my anger at the spineless coward, I'm glad I hadn't been the one to peruse him. Though I wouldn't admit it, I doubted I'd have been able to pull the trigger. It wasn't the same with Psycho.

No, he was a different issue, and a much bigger one than I had told the Rovers. The fur on the back of my neck bristled. If ever I was justified in hate, it was with him. Aside from the personal issues, Psycho was the most unnatural, spiteful and wicked contraption ever conceived by any man, much less Cyrus.

"What's running through that head of yours?" Kurt asked.

I hadn't seen him sit down next to me, though I didn't jump from the startle. Kylie sat on her legs in the seat in front, and folded her arms over so that they were close to Kurt's.

"Thinking." I replied, looking back out the window.

"What are you thinking about that would make you bristle?" Kylie asked, indicating the fur on my neck.

I spared a fleeing smile. "Nothing much."

"Come on, Riot. You can't play the tough guy forever. You're a Rover now, and that means talking to your team." Kylie said with a jab at my arm.

I snapped before I could catch myself, "Kind of like how you were honest with us?" I fixed my eyes on hers. The bus, which had been alive with small-talk, was dead-quiet.

"That was uncalled for, man." Kurt rubbed his neck in the awkward tension.

I took a deep breath, and rubbed my eyes. It was like I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I put my hands down, and met Kylie's gaze. "I'm not going to apologize for what I just said, but that's only under the realization that my silence is hurting the team just as much as yours did." Kylie actually nodded somewhat. "I've been for longing going into detail about Psycho, but it's a real possibility that we may meet him again." I stood and walked to the front of the bus, where I leaned against the dash so that everyone could hear me speak. Everyone had been listening anyway, but I hated repeating myself. "You're all familiar with my…history with psycho to an extent. To a greater extent, I know that he and I have acted together in multiple assassinations for Cyrus, the details of which are washed from my memory.

"To fight Psycho, you have to understand who and what he is. He's the only person…dare I call him that…in the entire lab who's background is no secrete. Psycho was a coyote that Cyrus picked out of a zoo in some of his early experiments. Even when he was initially transdogmafies, he was partly insane. Likely the for same reasons as Muzzle. That's a point for debate. Later, as Cyrus's understanding of powers grew, Psycho became the original hunter-seeker. As you know, to be a hunter-seeker is no kind fate. Somehow, however, Psycho maintained many aspects of his character, and soon began developing uncontrollably. He's immune to memory erasing, fire, ice, wind, water, and even wounds that would kill any normal person.

"Worst yet, he developed a bloodlust. Many more conditions surfaced, resulting in the bent-over creature you've met. The worst of these is his 'adaptability', as Cyrus would say. Basically it means that he actually absorbs your power if you use it on him. The issue is that it doesn't surface in the same manner. I'm sure you saw the blades coming from his elbows? That was a power absorbed from Zig. As his creepy head-spinning thing? That was a power absorbed from Captain." I paused to look at Blitz, who was raising his hand as though he were in school. "What?"

"Dah, uh, I don't mean to be rude, but why are you telling us this?" he asked.

I had wanted to go into a few more details, but I summarized in one of the most gruesome, yet simple manners possible. "Because if any of you ever see him again, even if you're in a group, you need to run. You can't beat him."

"Okay, I still don't get it." Blitz crossed his arms. Many others looked confused as well.

I sighed, and folded my arms. "You can't kill Psycho."

"What?" Hunter half-chuckled from the driver seat.

"Cyrus tried for years before he gave up. He's been shot, maimed, shot-to-heck with an artillery gun, bladed, and countless other things, and nothing has ever worked."

"That's impossible." Kurt said plainly. "How are we supposed to beat him if he _is_ invincible, like you say?"

"Ah, and now you see the problem I've faced for as long as my memory permits." I said.

"Have they ever tried launching him into space?" Kylie asked, obviously missing cheerier conversations.

"I believe that would work. The problem is keeping him still enough to get him up. He can burn through hand cuffs, and easily break the spells of drugging."

"Do you expect to meet him in Canada?" Kurt asked.

I shrugged. "I'd like to think not, but I don't believe it would be possible to respond 'no' to your question. I just felt I should share that with you."

"One more question. If he's invincible or whatever, why did you pick a fight with him?" Kurt asked.

I smiled sinisterly. "Because he still feels pain."

After about an hour of silence following my speech, cheery conversation sparked up once more. Rather it was from the awkward silence, or from the realization that such talks were valued, I don't claim to know. I didn't mind the change in mood at all. I even joined Kurt, Blitz, Colleen and a few others in a game of cards. Kylie worked with Kurt on their hand, in contrast to Hunter and Colleen (Exile was driving). They seemed to find a simple pleasure in pitting their chances against one another. I wondered if that ever worked to their advantage on the field?

_Typical of me_, I criticized myself. _Everything always goes back to the battlefield._

Kylie jumped suddenly with a loud "_Yipe_!"

I jumped to my feet, blaster in hand, looking to see if she had been shot by an unseen foe. "What's wrong?" I asked impatiently as I continued to scan the desert.

"Kurt, you just shocked me!" she exclaimed, looking at a slightly singed section of fur.

I looked over at Kurt, who shared Kylie's shock. He even looked a tad scared. Curious, I reached out, and poked Kurt in the shoulder. No shock.

Hunter shrugged after he poked Kurt on the arm. "Maybe it's just your shocking personality?"

We all looked at Hunter for a moment before returning to Kurt. "Was it static, maybe?" I asked.

"Metal floors don't generate static." Colleen said, kicking at the floor of the bus.

I holstered my blaster, having noticed Blitz staring at me funny, and glared passively out the window. The desert was changing from an endless sea of blinding sand to a spine of rocky, bald mountains.

For several hours, we picked and guessed at Kylie's shock. Eventually, failing to replicate the event, we gave up. Besides, the landscape around up was slowly becoming more interesting. Scattered trees were beginning to show up, and signs of life were becoming more and more evident. It would be hours yet before we even reached the border, almost a full day of travel more, at that. Luckily, the bus had bunks in the back. I lay my head on one of the travel pillows, and stared at the ceiling, not thinking about anything. Sleep didn't come right away, and when it did come, it was a restless and shallow slumber at best.

**Section 3 - ** Young Swordsman

I did feel like knocking some sense into Riot, but I didn't. It wasn't because of his outburst about how Kylie kept a secret from the rest of the team, but more like why I felt it was something that didn't need to be said again. Besides, I thought, who was he to judge that Kylie being silent about her true gender was hindering the team? As far as I could tell, it hadn't made a difference at all! I guess I half expected him to also understand that there was a logical fear of being confined to a desk; something she could never live with. But then again, I myself had to stop assuming that Riot already knew things, since he had not lived a life that was anything I was used to. I mean, sure, I had been in a laboratory for three months of my life, but I remembered none of it. Riot was probably at the lab he kept talking about since infancy, from what I could tell. As for the sparks, I decided not to tell anyone about it and get anyone all riled up about how my new ability could potentially "save" them, since it was probably far from useful at this point. It needed some fine-tuning, and some more practice. It was equivalent to a static shock, but it could take some months before I could even get it to be as powerful as a tazer!

A day later, we crossed the Canadian border. We had a special pass to get through the border without having to go through customs inspections. Our pass, officially, was given to us because we were a "Foreign Specialized Military Task Force Requested by the Canadian Government." So, we crossed the border, and headed to the remote area of the Canadian Rockies. As beautiful as it was, we had to keep our guard up. Even though we knew that there wasn't any movement around the base, and we weren't notified of any movement along the way, there could still be guards waiting to ambush us. Fortunately, our bus was armored, was fitted with bullet-proof glass, and had an extra set of wheels that could be deployed if the tires were shot out. All this in a really nondescript bus. _Man,_ I thought, _the Rovers seem to be prepared for everything!_

We were silent when we reached our destination. Or, when we got within a mile of the destination. We were on the side of a barren highway, with no sign of civilization in sight, except that we could see some barbed wire fences in the distance, which, I figured, was the enemy base. We parked the bus on the side of the road and we covered it with sticks, leaves, rocks, and stuff so that nobody would find it, and then we headed out. The first place we went was into the trees and up the mountains. We were silent the entire way up there, communicating mostly through hand gestures and other gestures. We had good reason to be silent: Psycho, knowing that he was invincible, as far as we knew, could come out from behind any tree at any moment. I still didn't entirely buy that nothing could kill him, though... I mean, sure, he was a vicious fighter, which we had noticed when me and a few of the others opened fire on him at the same time, most shots going straight through his body, but he had not been seriously harmed, as his skin, and probably everything else, grew back. But still, had they tried detonating an explosive on his head? Had they detonated a nuke next to him? Had they dunked his head in acid? I went on and on with this in my head, but I stopped thinking about it when my mind went to more morbid possibilities that I'd rather not try to recall.

We camped out when we got to a high point on the mountain that allowed us to have a good vantage point on the base we were to storm. Like the Master had told us earlier, there was nobody over there. Nobody on the outside of the base that we could see. Our infra-red vision binoculars did show that the base was still operational on the inside, since we could see that the water heater was working, and the furnaces were on as well. However, determining if there was life inside of the base was harder. Gordon, who was using the infra-red binoculars, claimed to have seen movement, but they weren't allowed to make assumptions based only on infra-red sightings. But either way, we knew that Cyrus was still at the base. The Canadian rangers, who were supposed to contact us if/when they noticed anything, hadn't contacted us. They were, however, supposed to meet up with us just in case, for a status update. But until then, we camped out at the spot, where we kept a vigilant watch on our surroundings and the base.

As night fell that day, we were just starting to settle down for the night when we heard footsteps. They were slow, heavy, and rustled leaves every time they were heard. Everyone took defensive positions and waited silently. When they got close enough so that we could see where they were coming from, we were relieved when we saw that they came from two soldiers holding their weapons above their heads, showing that they are not hostile, who also wore Canadian flag patches on their shoulders. We all lowered our weapons and greeted them.

"You know," began one of the Canadian rangers after we had settled down, "I never fully believed the rumors that you guys were 'humanoid dogs' until now."

"I probably wouldn't believe it either, if I was in your position," I noted.

The other ranger nodded. "It's out of the ordinary, I guess, but I don't think it'll take long for us to get used to it. Ever since this base popped up and we were sent to investigate it, we've been dealing with some _weird_ enemies. Heck, a few times we thought we were hallucinating!"

"Well," said Gunther, "just know that odds are that you're not hallucinating once we get into the base. The guy who runs the place does crazy genetic stuff which causes such crazy stuff to exist."

"Right," interjected Jack, "also know that they're a lot more durable than practically anything on the face of the Earth, so make sure to aim for the heads if they're not humans."

"Damn," one of the rangers breathed, expressing shock.

"Don't worry," added Hunter, "you aren't the only ones apprehensive about this."

The conversation trailed off after that, and we waited for nightfall to begin our descent to the base. When it came around, the rangers, named Jean-Luc and Stanley, led us down the mountainside to the base by way of the most secretive methods. Stanley stayed behind after half the distance, since he was to cover us from above with his sniper rifle. Jean-Luc led us the rest of the way in silence. We got to the fence around the base without too much ado, but getting past the fence was another matter. Not only was it covered with barbed wire at the top, but according to Jean-Luc, it was rigged with enough amps of electricity to kill someone multiple times. Personally, I would have called in an air strike to just decimate the base. Unfortunately, it was too close to a civilian roadway to do that, and there was also the possibility of prisoners being held there. We eventually came to a decision, which called for us to find and then disable the power lines that fed electricity into the base. It wasn't as time-consuming as it sounded, actually. Stanley, who had a good vantage point on the base and the area around it, already spotted a transformer near the base with wires that went into the base. Without much ado, his somewhat silenced sniper rifle quickly disabled it with one shot, which bought us enough time for Blitz to cut through the wires without zapping himself, and then allow us to get through.

We managed to slip through without hearing any alarm start up. Jean-Luc led us through the yard outside the base, where the recon photos had depicted Cyrus landing in his chopper a couple days ago. It was kind of eerie to be there, seeing empty space when there was a large crowd of Cyrus' mercenaries were only days ago. Everyone clicked on their night-vision goggles, and seeing nobody, Jean-Luc led us towards the doorway to the nearest building in the compound. According to him, the two buildings were connected through their basements. There was apparently a small corridor between the two basements that allowed whoever might be in there to travel between one building and the other during an air raid. We were to use that corridor to get to the rest of the equipment down there once we finished with one basement.

When we got to the doorway, the first thing we noticed about it was that it was locked with a fingerprint ID system. Jack wasted no time in rigging the lock with a small, and quiet explosive. When it detonated, the door swung open with little more than a slight "pop" and some barely audible squeaking from the hinges, and revealed that the lights were on inside. We clicked off our night vision goggles, and with our weapons at the ready, we moved forward. We cleared out the first floor without any resistance once we got in, finding only empty firearms, and then Jean-Luc led us down the stairway to the basement.

Upon getting near the bottom, we were able to see part of what was at the bottom of the stairs. It wasn't entirely surprising what we saw, though. We had already suspected it, anyway. Along with the low-pitched, and rather loud humming of what I guessed was the thermostat, we saw three of the transdogmafier things side by side, with long lines of people who looked like the guards in the recon picture we saw earlier, waiting to get in. What did surprise us, however, were the looks on their faces. Judging by that, they were not very eager to be donating their current bodies to this cause of Cyrus'. Maybe all these guys knew what becoming a cano-mutant entails, like Riot did. But who knows? Maybe they knew that they'd lose their free will because of those mind-control-like collars that Cyrus distributed to his "trusty" cano-mutants/hunter-seekers. To add to the effect of their faces, they were being closely watched by six hunter-seekers.

"Jean," whispered Gordon, "what are the odds that those guys in line will side with us if we go down there?"

"Not likely," Jean-Luc replied, "but given that they're unarmed, it may be worth a try, eh?"

"I wouldn't try it," interjected Riot, "most of these guys do this for the money Cyrus gives them. If they don't do what he says and not defend this place, they won't get paid, and will likely be killed as well. I think it's likely that this wasn't in the job description when they signed up."

"Maybe we shoul'n't be shootin' people who are unarmed!" Colleen whispered harshly, "How do we know that those ain't 'ostages dressed up like guards?"

"She's right," added Hunter, "let's just get rid of those hunter-seekers first, and see if any of the others open fire on us."

"Sounds better to me," commented Kylie.

Gunther nodded. "OK, guys," he whispered, "we need to make this as stealthy, and as fast as possible, so aim for the heads of the hunter-seekers, and if they don't die that instant, then do whatever else you can to bring them down! Only fire on the guards if they open fire on us, got it?"

The rest of us nodded in reply. The Strike Team aimed their rifles, Jean-Luc aimed with an MP5, the Rovers aimed with their blaster weapons, and I aimed with my bow and arrow. We all waited for the signal to fire. It was really lucky that nobody noticed us yet, but it was mainly because everyone was facing away from us. Someone in the lines coughed, and we all opened fire. Two of the Hunter-seekers fell to the ground, dead: One with a bunch of 9-mm rounds in his head, and the other with a blaster shot to the head and an arrow in the neck. The people in the lines, shocked by what was going on, either dropped flat on the ground, covering their heads, or fled. The four remaining Hunter-seekers, however, charged at us. I picked off another Hunter-seeker with an arrow between the eyes, and then switched to my swords. The Hunter-seekers that remained, however, were all badly injured around the head and neck area. One had even lost the use of one of their arms! Jean-Luc brought down one of them by emptying an entire clip of ammo from his MP5 onto the chest, where at least one shot hit the heart. Riot engaged in hand-to-hand combat with another, and Exile used his ice vision to freeze the third Hunter-seeker's head in a solid block of ice. The Hunter-seeker stumbled around a bit, trying to feel his head, and then fell to the ground, unable to move much. The rest of us held our fire to wait for Riot to finish off the last Hunter-seeker of the six. When he finally drove his sword into the heart, we moved to the guards who were on the floor, clearly terrified. "Listen up, you goons!" exclaimed Gunther, "you all will remain where you are! If you try to escape, you will be shot!" Nobody moved.

"Good," noted Gunther, "now, if you want to get out of here alive, then remain here. The Canadian Army is on its way here, and I wouldn't advise trying to fight them. You have no weapons with ammunition, little armor, and fewer numbers! What they do with your sorry rear ends is up to them! But like I said, not resisting will likely grant you a better future! Do I make myself clear?"  
Nobody spoke.

"Quiet bunch, these people are," noted Hunter quietly, "C'mon, let's do this," he said to the Rovers. We all got out our handcuffs we kept in our utility belts, and we put them on as many people as we could. The Strike team and Jean-Luc had some plastic ones as well, and far more than we had. In all, I think we handcuffed about 50 guards or so. Once we finished that, I looked to Kylie. She nodded, and headed to the transdogmafier machines. I went with her, seeing if I could help out. _Maybe,_ I thought, _I could try out my electric skills on this..._ I put my hand on one of the circuit boards of the machine on the far right, while Kylie was working on the one on the left. I tried to focus my energy to my hand, and tried to get my emotions on the high road, like I did with the control bracelet back in Poland. I heard a couple loud "Pops", and I saw that the board I had my hand on was smoking. _That sure worked,_ I thought. The others didn't seem to notice what I had just done, as it was far from an EMP being emitted from my hand, but it didn't matter, as I did what was necessary. Kylie managed to cut the right wires on the other two machines, and sure enough, those two shut off, which we could tell by the light on the inside turning off. "Nice work, guys!" said Blake.

Kylie and I turned around and nodded. Jean-Luc was getting impatient and urged us forward. So we moved on.


End file.
